Water is essential for life but getting clean water is a challenge in many places due to pollution and how water is spread out across the Earth. This study looks at how important it is to check the quality of water, especially with more factories and cities growing. We focus on plankton, tiny water organisms that can tell us a lot about water’s health. When water gets polluted, the type and amount of plankton change, which is a warning sign of poor water quality. Traditional ways of studying plankton involve collecting water samples and analyzing them in labs, which takes a lot of time and can delay getting important information. To make this process faster and more accurate, we use new technologies like digital holographic microscopy (DHM) and lensless digital holographic microscopy (LDHM). These methods allow us to see plankton in great detail and quickly understand water quality.
We explain how we create and analyze images of plankton without using traditional lenses, using light and computers to capture and study these images in detail. This includes using different light wavelengths and advanced computing methods like the Gerchberg-Saxton (G-S) iteration for better image analysis, and techniques like level-set based cell image segmentation for counting and studying plankton cells accurately. Our experiments with these technologies showed that we could see tiny details in plankton, as small as 2.46 micrometers, which is almost as good as the best our equipment can do. This proves that our approach is effective for quickly checking water quality by looking at plankton.
By introducing these new technologies, we provide a faster and cheaper way to monitor water quality, which could help in understanding and protecting aquatic environments better. This research offers a new solution for quickly finding out about water quality through detailed study of plankton, showing a way forward for environmental monitoring.