What is EMU?

Micro-Manager controls the devices on your microscope using device properties (e.g. laser on/off). All device properties can be accessed through the device property browser. However, controlling the microscope through a long list of properties is cumbersome, slow and rather aimed at the microscope engineer than at the user. While interactions with device properties can be facilitated by using configuration preset groups or the quick access plugin, these cannot replace a user interface (UI) tailored to the microscope.

Tailored interfaces have the advantage of rendering the control of the microscope intuitive. However, tailoring the UI often means hard-coded references to the specific device properties of the microscope and a need to recompile it every time something changes on the microscope.

Easier Micro-manager User interface (EMU) offers means to make your Micro-Manager interface reconfigurable:

Rapid design compatible with drag and drop softwares (e.g. Eclipse WindowBuilder).
Functional Micro-Manager UI with only few lines of code thanks to EMU's back-end.
Flexible and transferable: easy and intuitive configuration through EMU's interface.

How to install EMU?

Download and install Micro-Manager 2-gamma.
Install git (for windows users: git bash)
Download the Java SE Development Kit 8. Set the environment variable JAVA_HOME to the JDK 1.8 folder path.
Download and install Maven.
Using the git console, go to the folder you wish to install EMU in and type (omitting the $):
```
$ git clone https://github.com/jdeschamps/EMU.git
```
Navigate to the EMU folder and compile it using the path to Micro-manager:
```
$ cd emu
$ ./compileAndDeploy.sh "C:\Path\to\MicroManager2gamma"
```
Note: the script requires bash, which is shipped with the git console on Windows.
Install an EMU plugin by placing the plugin compiled .jar file in "C:\Path\to\MicroManager2gamma\EMU".

EMU plugins and resources

Examples

EMU plugin examples: these projects include an empty base project, a simple UI for controlling lasers and a filterwheel and an interface for a commercial laser.

Guide

The EMU guide offers both a description of EMU menus for users and a programming guide for implementing your own EMU plugin.

Tutorial

Tutorial for Eclipse Windows Builder: a detailed walk through on how to easily assemble an EMU user interface using drag and drop software.

htSMLM

The Ries lab is using its own advanced EMU plugin to control automated localization microscopes: htSMLM.