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Imaging particle analysis uses the techniques common to [[image analysis]] or [[image processing]] for the analysis of particles. Particles are defined here per [[particle size analysis]] as particulate solids, and thereby not including atomic or sub-atomic particles. Furthermore, this article is limited to [[real image|real images]] (optically formed), as opposed to "synthetic" (computed) images ([[computed tomography]], [[confocal microscopy]], SIM and other [[super resolution microscopy]] techniques, etc.).
Given the above, the primary method for imaging particle analysis is using optical microscopy. While [[optical microscope|optical microscopes]] have been around and used for particle analysis since the 1600's<ref name="Hogg1887">{{cite book|author=Jabez Hogg|title=The Microscope: Its History, Construction, and Application: Being a Familiar Introduction to the Use of the Instrument, and the Study of Microscopical Science|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=wzM5AAAAMAAJ&pg=PA8|year=1887|publisher=G. Routledge and Sons|pages=8|edition=12th}}</ref>, the "analysis" in the past has been accomplished by humans using the human [[visual system]]. As such, much of this analysis is subjective, or qualitative in nature. Even when some sort of qualitative tools are available, such as a measuring [[reticle]] in the microscope, it has still required a human to determine and record those measurements.
Beginning in the late 1800's<ref name="Tissandier1877">{{cite book|author=Gaston Tissandier|title=A History and Handbook of Photography|url=http://books.google.com/books?id=lWo9AAAAYAAJ&pg=PA1|year=1877|publisher=Sampson, Low, Marston, Low, & Searle|pages=1}}</ref> with the availability of [[photographic plate|photographic plates]], it became possible to capture microscope images permanently on film or paper, making measurements easier to acquire by simply using a scaled ruler on the hard copy image. While this significantly speeded up the acquisition of particle measurements, it was still a tedious, labor intensive process, which not only made it difficult to measure statistically significant particle populations, but also still introduced some degree of human error to the process.
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