🚀 go-pugleaf

[note crossposting to sci.electronics... while
this query does not immediately cry out to be
posted to sci.electronics, i have gotten such 
great info from the people there, that i wanted
to see if there was some simpler, perhaps more
discreet approach to what i am looking for... thanks]

I have several mac hardware questions centering around a
project i am working on...
 
we are developing a system which will look at large numbers
of tiny shell creatures from the ocean sediment (forams) and
visually pick out the ones that are reddish (the red ones
were alive when they were scooped out of the ocean
sediment)... the little dudes range from 150 microns to
1mm... and we are going to want to look at buckets of
them...[for climate change research]
 
so, what des this have to do with mac hardware you say?
 
well, we have come up with two possible approaches... both of
which require some mac hardware that i believe exists, but...
 
one approach woud be to use a color 600 dpi (or greater)
scanner and identify the red ones with some image analysis
software...
 
for this, i would like to know if anyone can recommend a
scanner like the one that used to be on the market (at least,
i am told it is gone... it always had ads with the scanner
looking at marbles, etc) which is designed to work with 3D
things... essentially it has a lense fixed several (~10"?)
inches above the area to be scanned... this arrangement would
allow us to arrange some sort of conveyor belt to march
batches of the little shells under the scanner (obviously a
bit of a problem with flatbed scanners)... [as an aside, our
thought is to pick out the red ones, after identification
(software recommendations anyone... wrong group, but hey)
using a small vacuum attached to a robot arm in the form of a
plotter arm (easy to hook up to a computer!)]
 
a different approach would be to use some sort of digitizer
(camera), but i have exceptionally meager knowledge of what's
out there and what would be appropriate, and would welcome
any input on this front as well... (this option sounds
expensive)
 
a final long shot approach: does anyone know of any really
small optical sensors for the mac which could look at a 1mm
cross section and look for red? this seems unlikely that
something like this would be premade... but hey, i like to
live on the edge... this would allow us to march a procession
of the shells past the sensor in single file...
 
so, does anyone have any ideas/sources/experience with this
which could accelerate my learning curve? i'd also appreciate
any soggestions in software if anyone for the image analysis,
and subsequent manipulation of a plotter arm...
 
finally, does anyone think there any other newsgroups which
you think might be good for the type of queries i am posing?
 
 
thanks in advance for your help
 
jory bell
jory@mit.edu