  Dust particles immersed within a plasma environment, such as those found in
planetary rings or cometary environments, will acquire an electric charge. If
the ratio of interparticle potential energy to average kinetic energy is high
enough the particles will form either a 'liquid' structure with short-range
ordering or a crystalline structure with long-range ordering. Since their
discovery in laboratory environments in 1994, such crystals have been the
subject of a variety of experimental, theoretical, and numerical
investigations. Laboratory experiments analyzing the behavior of dust grains in
a plasma rely on optical diagnostics to provide data about the system in a
non-perturbative manner. In the past, capturing, imaging, and analyzing
crystalline structure in dusty plasmas has been a non-trivial problem.
Utilizing digital imaging and analysis systems, data capture, image formatting,
and analysis can be done quickly. Following data capture, image analysis is
conducted using modified Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and Particle Tracking
Velocimetry (PTV) algorithms. The data extracted is then used to construct
Voronoi diagrams, calculate particle density, inter-particle spacing, pair
correlation functions, and thermal energy. From this data other dust plasma
parameters can be inferred such as inter-particle forces and grain charges.
