Will the deconvolution approach replace the confocal microscope?
Most experts in the field of digital deconvolution agree that deconvolution technology and pinhole based microscopes complement each other. In fact, many believe that the two technologies should be available on the same system so the researcher can choose which to use. In fact, digital deconvolution can be used to further enhance images captured with a confocal microscope (Shaw, 1991). The relationship between the two technologies is illustrated in Figure 3. The smaller circle in Figure 3 represents the collection of all images that can be acquired with the laser scanning confocal microscope. The larger circle represents the collection of all images that can be successfully acquired with MicroTome. The intersection of the two circles represents those images that can be successfully produced on either system. Most experts on digital deconvolution agree that at least 90% of the images that can be created with the laser scanning confocal microscope can be produced equally well with digita
