The use of cascaded correlation filters in holographic microscopy

Automated analysis of images collected by optical microscopes has significant potential as a straightforward and cost-effective means to screen biological samples. Depth of field restrictions, which are particularly severe in the case of high magnification and phase contrast microscopy, however, limit this approach as a means to examine more than a few nano-litres. A holographic microscope offers a solution to this problem by recording the interference between light scattered by the object field and a reference beam. In this way, all the information present in the three-dimensional scene is recorded on a single hologram without the need for mechanical scanning. A holographic microscope is thus considered as a microscope with an extended depth of field. The work presented in this thesis investigates the performance of non-linear Cascaded Correlation Filters (CCF) in two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) shift and rotationally invariant pattern recognition. [Continues.]