PC-based laboratory system for monitor and control of electrophoresis separation process

Convention electrophoresis experiments completely monitor and control electrophoresis in bulk. These systems automate labor-intensive procedures such as image analysis, results recoding, process termination, etc. Unfortunately, in these applications a deliberate small-scaled solution for educational and laboratorial purposes has not yet been developed. Seemingly, the current automation solutions for electrophoresis separation process are costly. This paper purposed an automation solution for the analysis of high resolution gel-electrophoresis pattern, with the use of image processing. The monitoring system, developed and implemented in NI-LabVIEW environment, is able to monitor the experiment effectively utilize a commercial webcam. This paper illustrates the design and implementation of an economic monitoring solution to automate the separation processes of electrophoresis. The real-time automatic monitoring solution, developed by image processing algorithms, is based on the principal of Hough Transform. The Hough Transform is a stimulatingly and computationally efficient procedure for monitoring electrophoresis experiments. Several image-processing techniques were integrated in the algorithm to improve the tracking reliability and robustness. Problematic issues due to the application of image processing are discussed in favor of reducing the computations. Hence, this provides a rapid monitoring solution highly effective. The software and hardware aspects of the system are outlined. The newly developed monitoring system recorded an accuracy of 97% based on the processed images.