image analysis involves complex computer algorithms which identify and characterize cellular color, shape, and quantity of the tissue sample using image pattern recognition technology based on vector quantization. vector representations of objects in the image, as opposed to bitmap representations, have superior zoom-in ability. once the sample image has been acquired and resident in the computer's random access memory as a large array of 0's and 1's, a programmer knowledgeable in cellular architecture can develop deterministic algorithms applied to the entire memory space to detect cell patterns from previously defined cellular structures and formations known to be significant.