How to create satisfying high-resolution microscope stitched pictures with limited resources? A simple method applied to cross-sections of teeth

By associating last progresses in photography, computer science and additive manufacturing, cost-effective planar stitching of non-structured photographs of microscope slides into high definition large pictures is achievable. The proposed method, inspired by previous works and state-of-the art equipment, uses non-professional camera, little pre-processing, no post processing, and little to no investment is needed. A total duration of 41 min was observed to create a high-quality, high-resolution full picture of a sagittal cross-section of a permanent maxillary central incisor, from 16 original photographs with a × 40 microscope optical magnification. Final pictures weights are in-between 60 Mo and 340 Mo, depending on the format and the number of initial photographs. Higher magnification does not seem to enhance pictures, but sensibly increases file weight. This method has numerous applications, such as research, sharing and teaching and will certainly be enhanced in the future thanks to the high speed development of smartphone abilities.