[Qgis-user] Unusual application of QGIS

[Gerhardus Geldenhuis]

Hi
I was wondering if QGIS could be used in a slightly different way.

I do EMPA ( Electron probe micro-analyzer ) of microscope slides. When it
is in the device I can note down x,y,z co-ordinates when taking a photo or
doing a sample analysis. The problem is when you remove the slide and put
it back in again these previous x,y and z components are now meaningless
because the device that holds the slide is not accurate enough to achieve
the same positioning again. I was thinking that if I had known reference
points on the slide I could "geo-reference" all pictures and scans I did
for a specific session and then when I have follow up photos and point
analysis data, taken in a separate session, I could "geo-reference these
and use QGIS to map out all the photos and pin point analysis as different
layers making it very easy to correlate data. As long as I have the
co-ordinates I should then be able to add any other microscope ( eg.
petrographic images ) data as a separate layer and match it up.

If I could get it working I could also write a plugin that could tell me
co-ordinates of a point on the "map" based on the new x,y co-ordinates when
I re-insert the microscope slide.
Just in case it is not clear let me explain:
When I insert a slide into the EMPA machine a certain spot will have
co-ordinates of 255,234,40. When I re-insert the slide it might now have
co-ordinates of 100,2000,80. However it is still the same point but because
I am measuring in nano meters small changes can make big differences.

My question is thus, does this sound possible and have anyone else done
something similar? The area being mapped is actually flat and I am not sure
if that would make a difference.

Regards

-- 
Gerhardus Geldenhuis
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.osgeo.org/pipermail/qgis-user/attachments/20120507/e2ef392b/attachment.html>