Extraction of microsphere size from diffraction images with an STFT method

This paper presents an image analysis method based on a short-time-Fourier-transform (STFT) for extracting the size of polystyrene microspheres with different nominal diameters from diffraction images obtained with a newly developed diffraction imaging flow cytometer. The center frequency of STFT and its relation with the image row index are explored to extract the microspheres´ diameter. We have shown that the STFT based method provides a new and rapid method for determination of microsphere sizes and their distribution using the diffraction imaging flow cytometer.