Starch-Granule-Analyzer
Introducing “Starch-Granule-Analyzer”: A new software-based method of measuring and analysing starch granules in scanning electron microscopy images
Starch and its derivatives are essential components of various industrially made food and non-food products. Alteration of starch properties and starch amounts is therefore a major aim in research. As starch forms insoluble particles, the size and characteristics of these starch particles are frequently in focus of the research. A new methodical approach of how starch granules in Scanning Electron Microscope images could be measured semi-automatically using computer vision principles and evaluated statistically in a convenient way, implementing process automation, is introduced here. With the development of the “Starch-Granule-Analyzer” software, a tool shall be provided with the aim of reducing the burden of data intense, repetitive, mundane work for researchers. Additionally, the from-scratch built software provides functionalities to generate Excel spreadsheet files containing all measurements of an analysed image sorted and filtered alongside descriptive statistics and histograms available for further usage. Within the course of development, the robustness against different influences, for example varying parameter settings in image generation of electron microscope or the user defined setting of image analysis parameters typed into the software’s user interface, was examined. This new method was also contrasted against the recently used method of using imaging software like ImageJ to measure individual granules manually without an automated creation of evaluated data along that laborious way of granule measuring. The comparison of both methods derived their respective strengths and led, together with the variance analyses used for robustness testing, to findings helping to establish reliable workflows ending in valid results. Those will be provided here, next to a manual, a click guide, and the program download for interested researchers wanting to bind in the “Starch-Granule-Analyzer” in their analytical workflows.
Link to Repository:
https://github.com/MarkusPieth/Starch-Granule-Analyzer/releases/tag/v1.0.0_Starch-Granule-Analyzer