Development of an application, which blinds files in a folder to maximize the objectivity when manually analysing these files.
Start application and enter the following:
- File directory: Enter the full path to the directory containing the files to blind (or navigate with the 'Browse' button)
- File suffix: Enter the suffix of your files (e.g. '.tif' or '.lif' or '.czi', but without the quotations marks. It doesn't have to be a image file format. As long it is a file suffix, this tool can work with anyfile extension/format.)
- Press button 'Start Blinding Data!' to start the blinding.
- When finished (indicated by displaying 'Finished!') either start new blinding with a new directory and suffix or end application by clicking the 'Close Blinder.' button
Based on the file suffix, BLINDER creates a list of all files in the given directory with the given suffix. Then BLINDER creates a list with values ranging from 1 to total number of images/files. It then creates a mapping of each file with a random number from that list so that each file is assigned to one unique number. It then copies the files into a subfolder called 'blinded' and renames them according to this mapping. Along with the copied files BLINDER stores the mapping as a tab-separated .csv file in the 'blinded' subfolder for later unblinding of the data. When in source folder already contains a blinded folder, the user has three choices:
- Overwrite the data in the blinded folder with the new files.
- Append the new data to the existing. Hereby the numbering continues from the already existing blinded files.
- Abort and manually take care of the data in the blinded folder.
New ideas about features or reporting a bug? Please feel free to open an issue. I am happy about suggestions.