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US 2010/0060729 A1Published application
System for creating microscopic digital montage images
AssigneeCarl Zeiss MicroImaging GmbH
InventorsArthur W. Wetzel, John R. Gilbertson, II, Jeffrey A. Beckstead, Patricia A. Feineigle, Christopher R. Hauser, Frank A. Palmieri, JR.
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An imaging apparatus. The imaging apparatus may find an area in which a specimen is present, then focus on the specimen and capture images of the specimen during continuous stage motion.
Claims29
A focusing method, comprising:
- focusing a microscope optic on a plurality of points of a specimen to determine a focal length for each point;
- fitting a normalized surface to the points at the focal lengths;
- capturing a plurality of microscopic images of portions of the specimen while focusing on each point based on the fitted surface;
- selecting an additional point;
- determining another focal length for the additional point;
- and
- fitting another surface to the plurality of points at the focal lengths and the additional point at the other focal length.
4 more elements
An imaging apparatus, comprising:
- a motorized stage;
- a camera focused relative to the motorized stage;
- and a processor coupled to the camera, wherein the processor contains instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
- capture a low resolution image that is incident on the camera, wherein the low resolution image includes a plurality of pixels, the pixels having a characteristic;
- establish the characteristic for each pixel;
- determine which of the pixels contain a target image based on the characteristic of the pixels and establish a target area that includes those pixels;
- transpose the position of the target area into a plurality of stage coordinates;
- capture a high resolution image that is incident on the camera at each of the stage coordinates,
- wherein the processor determines which pixels contain the target image based on a relative intensity of the pixels and further:
- determines a mean intensity of the pixels;
- compares the intensity of each of the pixels to the mean intensity;
- and
- divides the pixels into a group of non-target image pixels having high intensities and a group of target image pixels having intensities lower than the high intensities.
10 more elements
An imaging apparatus, comprising:
- a motorized stage;
- a camera having a lens directed toward the motorized stage;
- and
- a processor coupled to the camera, wherein the processor contains instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
- select at least three points of a sample adjacent the motorized stage;
- determine a stage position for each of the selected points;
- focus the camera on each of the selected points;
- determine an object distance from the camera lens to the sample at each of the selected points;
- develop a normalized focus surface based on the stage position and the object distance for the selected points,
- wherein when the processor selects at least three points of a sample adjacent the motorized stage, the processor further:
- determines a distribution of the at least three selected points within the sample;
- determines whether at least one of the selected points lies within each of at least two predetermined areas;
- and
- selects additional points until at least one of the additional points lies within each predetermined area.
11 more elements
A focusing method, comprising:
- focusing a microscope optic on a plurality of points of a specimen to determine a focal length for each point;
- fitting a normalized surface to the points at the focal lengths;
- capturing a plurality of microscopic images of portions of the specimen while focusing on each microscopic image based on the fitted surface, wherein the specimen is moved continuously while a plurality of adjacent images of the specimen are captured;
- and
- wherein the microscope optic is focused based on the focal length of the fitted surface for each of the adjacent images to be captured while the specimen is moved.
2 more elements
An imaging apparatus, comprising:
- a motorized stage;
- a camera focused relative to the motorized stage;
- and a processor coupled to the camera, wherein the processor contains instructions which, when executed by the processor, cause the processor to:
- capture a low resolution image that is incident on the camera, wherein the low resolution image includes a plurality of pixels, the pixels having a characteristic;
- establish the characteristic for each pixel;
- determine which of the pixels contain a target image based on the characteristic of the pixels and establish a target area that includes those pixels;
- transpose the position of the target area into a plurality of stage coordinates;
- capture a high resolution image that is incident on the camera at each of the stage coordinates, wherein the processor determines which of the pixels contain the target image based on a relative intensity of the pixels and further:
- determine, for the pixels, an intensity standard deviation that provides an amount of variation in pixel intensity;
- compare the intensity of each pixel to the intensity standard deviation;
- and
- divide the pixels into a group of non-target image pixels having low standard deviations and a group of target image border pixels having standard deviations that are greater than any of the low standard deviations.
9 more elements
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.