Development of a CCD based system called DIGITRACK for automatic track counting and evaluation

We have developed, to the best of our knowledge, the first automatic track analysis system (DIGITRACK) in which the video signals are processed by a new type of video-receiver called charge-coupled device (CCD). The photosensitive semi-conductor device is a 2.5 cm long line imager of type Fairchild CCD 121HC which converts one row of the picture seen through a low magnification microscope into 1728 binary signals by a thresholding logic. The picture elements are analysed by a microcomputer equipped with two INTEL 8080 microprocessors and interfaced to a PDP-11/40 computer. The microcomputer also controls the motion of the stage of microscope. For pattern recognition and analysis a software procedure is developed which is able to differentiate between overlapping tracks and to determine the number, surface opening and x-y coordinates of the tracks occurring in a given detector area. The distribution of track densities and spot areas on the detector surface can be visualized on a graphic display. The DIGITRACK system has been tested for analysis of alpha-tracks registered in CR-39 and LR-115 detectors. (author)