ArticleBiophysical journal2001
Quantitative comparison of algorithms for tracking single fluorescent particles.
Article in Biophysical journal, 2001. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 232 papers.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
232 citing papers in PubMed.
- CRISPR-Cas-based live cell imaging of genome dynamics.Nature reviews. Genetics · 2026Review
- Diffusing caveolin-1 scaffolds regulate mechanosignalling.Nature cell biology · 2026Article
- A versatile nanobody platform for live and super-resolution imaging of synaptic vesicle dynamics and plasticity in rodent and human neurons.Journal of nanobiotechnology · 2026Article
- Methods to analyze cell migration data: fundamentals and practical guidelines.Nature methods · 2026Review
- Single Particle Tracking Photo-Activated Localization Microscopy.Methods in molecular biology (Clifton, N.J.) · 2026Article
- Perspective: An outlook on fluorescence tracking.The Journal of chemical physics · 2025Article
- Boosting microparticle tracking with neuromorphic cameras by optical modulation.Scientific reports · 2025Article
- Single-particle tracking of genetically encoded nanoparticles: Optimizing expression for cytoplasmic diffusion studies.Biophysical journal · 2025Article
- Nellie: automated organelle segmentation, tracking and hierarchical feature extraction in 2D/3D live-cell microscopy.Nature methods · 2025Article
- Localization Study of Photostable Alexa 488 at Single Molecule Level.Journal of fluorescence · 2025Article
- Unveiling inter-embryo variability in spindle length over time: Towards quantitative phenotype analysis.PLoS computational biology · 2024Article
- 3D Traction Force Microscopy in Biological Gels: From Single Cells to Multicellular Spheroids.Annual review of biomedical engineering · 2024Review
- Fluorescence-readout as a powerful macromolecular characterisation tool.Chemical science · 2023Review
- Article
- Combined SPT and FCS methods reveal a mechanism of RNAP II oversampling in cell nuclei.Scientific reports · 2023Article
- Human septins organize as octamer-based filaments and mediate actin-membrane anchoring in cells.The Journal of cell biology · 2023Article
- Extending resolution within a single imaging frame.Nature communications · 2022Article
- Particle Localization Using Local Gradients and Its Application to Nanometer Stabilization of a Microscope.ACS nano · 2022Article
- Method for the generation and visualization of cross-sectional images of three-dimensional point spread functions for rotationally symmetric intraocular lenses.Biomedical optics express · 2022Article
- Molecular mechanisms ofBiophysics reports · 2021Article
172 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
3 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Single particle tracking has seen numerous applications in biophysics, ranging from the diffusion of proteins in cell membranes to the movement of molecular motors. A plethora of computer algorithms have been developed to monitor the sub-pixel displacement of fluorescent objects between successive video frames, and some have been claimed to have "nanometer" resolution. To date, there has been no rigorous comparison of these algorithms under realistic conditions. In this paper, we quantitatively compare specific implementations of four commonly used tracking algorithms: cross-correlation, sum-absolute difference, centroid, and direct Gaussian fit. Images of fluorescent objects ranging in size from point sources to 5 microm were computer generated with known sub-pixel displacements. Realistic noise was added and the above four algorithms were compared for accuracy and precision. We found that cross-correlation is the most accurate algorithm for large particles. However, for point sources, direct Gaussian fit to the intensity distribution is the superior algorithm in terms of both accuracy and precision, and is the most robust at low signal-to-noise. Most significantly, all four algorithms fail as the signal-to-noise ratio approaches 4. We judge direct Gaussian fit to be the best algorithm when tracking single fluorophores, where the signal-to-noise is frequently near 4.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.