Video microscopy system and multi-view virtual slide viewer capable of simultaneously acquiring and displaying various digital views of an area of interest located on a microscopic slide

A slide viewer capable of simultaneous display of more than one scan of an area of interest of a slide, said viewer comprising:

• a database containing at least two data files representing different scans for a same area of interest on a slide, wherein the scans are of views of different digital representations;
• a processor associated with said database;
• and
• an interface associated with said processor for display of the different scans,
• wherein said processor retrieves said data files representing different scans of the same area of interest and displays these scans on said interface, such that a user may simultaneously view different scans of the same area of interest.

A slide viewer capable of simultaneous display of more than one scan of an area of interest of a slide, said viewer comprising:

• a database containing at least two data files representing different scans for a same area of interest on a slide;
• a processor associated with said database;
• and
• an interface associated with said processor for display of the different scans,
• wherein said processor displays a first scan on said interface of an area of interest, wherein said processor displays on said interface a selector window for use by a user to select regions on the displayed first scan, and wherein within a region selected by the user defined by said selector window, said processor displays pixel data from a second scan of the area of interest such that data from the first scan is displayed outside of the selector window and data from the second scan is displayed inside the selector window.

A slide viewer capable of simultaneous display of more than one scan of an area of interest of a slide, said viewer comprising:

• a database containing at least two data files representing different scans for a same area of interest on a slide;
• a processor associated with said database;
• and
• an interface associated with said processor for display of the different scans,
• wherein said processor displays a reference line on said interface and on one side of the reference line said processor displays data from a first scan and one an opposite side of said reference line, said processor displays data from a second slide, and
• wherein said processor is responsive to user input to move the reference line on said interface, and wherein said processor updates the display of the first and second scans, such that a region of the first scan now located on the opposed side of the reference line is replaced with corresponding data from the second scan.

A slide viewer capable of simultaneous display of more than one scan of an area of interest of more than one slide, said viewer comprising:

• a database containing at least two data files representing scans for the same area of interest on at least two different slides, wherein the slides contain correlated information;
• a processor associated with said database;
• and
• an interface associated with said processor for display of the different scans,
• wherein said processor retrieves said data files representing scans of the same area of interest on different slides with correlated information and displays these scans on said interface, such that a user may simultaneously view scans of the same area of interest from at least two different slides with correlated information.

A method for simultaneously displaying more than one scan of an area of interest of a slide, said method comprising the steps of:

• storing in a database at least two data files representing different scans for a same area of interest on a slide, wherein the scans are of views that are at least one of a different illumination and a different contrast;
• retrieves data files representing different scans of the same of area of interest;
• and
• displaying these scans on an interface, such that a user may simultaneously view scans of the same area of interest that are of views different from each other by at least one of illumination and contrast.