The Siegen automatic measuring system for nuclear track detectors: status and new developments

We developed a completely automatic scanning and measuring system for nuclear track detectors. The video pictures of particle tracks seen through a microscope are digitized and analyzed in real time by MC 68000 microprocessors. In this paper we present some new developments: The picture analysis software is extended to separate overlapping tracks and to measure elliptical tracks even if these are flawed by surface structures. A software autofocus, a faster hardware version based on the contrast and a modified commercial laser autofocus are now available. A new picture analysis system based on the faster 32-bit microprocessor MC 68020 will operate on two pictures of 1024 x 1024 pixels resident in memory together. This will allow three dimensional track measurements. (author)