Focusable virtual microscopy apparatus and method

An apparatus for forming a virtual microscope slide of a specimen on a microscope slide comprising:

• at least one lens configured to optically magnify the specimen at a given level of magnification, the lens being focusable in a plurality of focal planes;
• a microscope slide support configured to hold the microscope slide in an x, y moving relationship with respect to the lens;
• image acquisition electronics configured to capture an area of the specimen at the given level of magnification;
• a control system configured to automatically focus the lens at a first focal plane and move the microscope slide with respect to the lens and capture a first set of contiguous non-overlapping images of at least a portion of the specimen, the control system is further configured to automatically focus the lens at a second focal plane and move the microscope slide with respect to the lens and capture a second set of contiguous non-overlapping images of the portion of the specimen, each image in the first and second set of images having an associated position;
• and
• a memory configured to store the first and second sets of images and coordinating information that relates the positions of the first and second sets of images.

A virtual microscope slide viewer for viewing a virtual microscope slide data structure, the virtual microscope slide viewer comprising:

• a communications portion configured to retrieve from the virtual microscope slide data structure a first plurality of images from a first set of contiguous non-overlapping virtual microscope slide images at a first focal plane;
• the communications portion being configured to retrieve from the virtual microscope slide data structure a second plurality of images from a second set of contiguous non-overlapping virtual microscope slide images at a second focal plane, wherein the communications portion is configured to retrieve the second plurality of images based on a focus input;
• and
• the communications portion being configured to retrieve coordinating information from the virtual microscope slide data structure, wherein the coordinating information relates positions of the first and second plurality of images.

A virtual microscope slide server for storing a plurality of virtual microscope slide data structures, the virtual microscope slide server comprising:

• a memory configured to store the plurality of virtual microscope slide data structures, each virtual microscope slide data structure comprising:
• a first and second set of images at a first magnification derived from contiguous non-overlapping images captured from the specimen;
• wherein a plurality of images in the first set of images are associated with a first focal plane and a plurality of images in the second set of images are associated with a second focal plane, wherein the second focal plane is displaced relative to the first focal plane;
• and
• coordinating information that relates positions of the first and second sets of images.