There are 2 versions of EMAN
Please select:
Which link to follow ?
EMAN2 is NOT a replacement for EMAN, though it will eventually become one.
It currently can be installed along-side EMAN1 and provide new functionality
as well as improved versions of existing techniques. In addition, it is
completely Python-based, allowing end-users to easily write their own scripts
or modify existing scripts. EMAN2 is still in alpha-testing, and is currently
recommended only for advanced/adventurous users.
We will gradually obsolete EMAN1 over a period of a few years, as all
important features are gradually made available in EMAN2. We expect a
formal beta release of EMAN2 by the end of 2006.
What is EMAN ?
EMAN is a suite of scientific image processing tools aimed primarily at
the transmission electron microscopy community, though it is beginning
to be used in other fields as well. EMAN has a particular focus on
performing a task known as single particle reconstruction. In this
method, images of nanoscale molecules and molecular assemblies embedded
in vitreous (glassy) ice are collected on a transmission electron
microscope, then processed using EMAN to produce a complete 3-D
recosntruction at resolutions now approaching atomic resolution. For
low resolution structures (~2 nm), this may require ~8 hours of
computer processing and a few thousand particles. For structures aimed
at ~0.5 nm or better resolution, hundreds of thousands of particles and
hundreds of thousands of CPU-hours (on large computational clusters)
may be required. Indeed, EMAN is often used in supercomputing
facilities as a test application for large-scale computing.
Scientific image processing is distinguished from typical 'Photoshop'
image processing in that it is analyitical in nature. Images processed
in EMAN are floating point greyscale images. That is, the pixel values
in the images are represented as real numbers, not as small integers
(typical GIF/JPG/PNG images are limited to integral values from 0-255
for each pixel). Processing often includes complex image processing
operations in Fourier or Wavelet space. EMAN was first released in
1999, and has been under continuous development since. It consists of a
C++ library of hundreds of different image/volume processing algorithms
with bindings into the popular Python scripting language. In new EMAN
development, all user-level programs (of which there are over 200 in
EMAN 1.8) are developed in Python, allowing the knowledgable end-user
to make modifications without having to download or compile any of the
C++ source code.
Last modified by Steven Ludtke 09/28/2006