Not everyone can afford to own and operate a scanning electron microscope. Everyone can, however, access images and instruments in a variety of ways, depending on the objective. Remote access capability is a result of recent developments in desktop computers, software, and the World Wide Web. Some of these developments and some suggestions for future resource development will be reviewed here.

With the arrival of commercially available, digitally controlled SEMs in the 1980s, it became possible to control microscope operation with a desktop computer and the appropriate software. By connecting a desktop computer to the microscope via the Internet or dedicated data lines such as ATMs, remote control of microscopes became a reality. Although analog microscopes are not as readily controllable over the Internet, their video data stream is easily captured, digitized, and dispatched to remote observers using low-cost consumer video conferencing programs. These approaches enable users at one location to observe their samples in a microscope located elsewhere. However, transfer rates over the Internet fluctuate wildly depending on network traffic, at times making remote access or control almost impossible. Dedicated data lines ensure a relatively stable transfer rate, but at a significantly higher cost.