= Wayne Rasband
{c}
<Wayne Rasband> developed <NIH Image> and <ImageJ>, tools that make quantitative <image processing> available through an interactive program and extensible code. The ImageJ project's biography records forty years at the US National Institutes of Health and retirement in 2010. It dates the start of <NIH Image> to 1987 and <ImageJ> to 1997, when Rasband explored implementing the earlier program in <Java>.<Wayne Rasband profile on ImageJ.net>[Career paragraph; NIH Image and Java history]{ref}
This progression mattered because the same recorded <digital image> could become input to many explicit measurements. Selecting a <region of interest>, applying <image thresholding> and measuring an <area> are separate operations; each makes a choice that affects the result. <ImageJ User Guide by Tiago Ferreira and Wayne Rasband> records the program's image representations, selections, analysis commands and scripting facilities.<ImageJ User Guide by Tiago Ferreira and Wayne Rasband>[IJ1.46r, title page and selected contents: Image Types and Formats, Selections, Macro Programming, Threshold and Particle Analyzer]{ref}
For a small original measurement example, take four stored grayscale values
$$
I=(40,90,130,200).
$$
Select values at least 128, obtaining the <binary image> $(0,0,1,1)$. If each complete pixel represents a rectangle of calibrated width $\Delta x=0.5\,\mu\mathrm m$ and height $\Delta y=0.5\,\mu\mathrm m$, the <area from a calibrated pixel count> is
$$
A=2\Delta x\Delta y=\boxed{0.50\,\mu\mathrm m^2}.
$$
The chosen threshold determines which pixels contribute; the <pixel pitch> determines the physical <area> assigned to each. An attractive display alone supplies neither of these measurement choices. The calculation assumes complete selected pixel cells and a uniform rectangular calibration; it is not a measured specimen area.
Rasband's contribution also includes maintaining a community around the software: the project profile describes improvements supplied through user feedback, bug reports, code and documentation. That process connects a general <algorithm> to the concrete representations and measurement conventions needed for a repeatable analysis.<Wayne Rasband profile on ImageJ.net>[NIH Image and ImageJ community-development paragraphs]{ref}
\Image[https://imagej.net/media/people/wayne-rasband.jpg]
{title=Wayne Rasband, from his labeled ImageJ project profile}
{source=https://imagej.net/people/rasband}
{width=260}
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