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AssigneeHuron Technologies International Inc.
InventorsA.E. Dixon, Savvas Damaskinos, Alfonso Ribes, Jasper Hayes
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According to one aspect, an instrument for scanning a specimen. The instrument includes a scanning stage for supporting the specimen, a detector having a plurality of pixels, the scanning stage and the detector movable relative to each other to move the specimen in a scan direction during a scan, and a pulsed illumination source synchronized with the motion of the specimen on the scanning stage. At least some of the pixels of the detector are operable to collect light emitted from the specimen during the scan due to the pulsed illumination source and generate corresponding image data. The instrument may further include a processor operable to perform MSIA on the image data to generate an image of the specimen.
An instrument for scanning a specimen, comprising:
The instrument of the preceding claim, further comprising a processor operable to perform MSIA on the image data to generate an image of the specimen.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein the detector is a monochrome detector.
The instrument of any preceding claim, where the pulsed illumination source provides illumination of one or more colors.
The instrument of any preceding claim, where the pulsed illumination source provides sequential R, G and B illumination.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein the pulsed illumination source is configured for brightfield imaging.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein the pulsed illumination source is configured for fluorescence imaging.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein the detector is a color area detector.
The instrument of the preceding claim, wherein the color area detector array incorporates a filter array.
The instrument of the preceding claim, wherein the colors in the filter array are chosen to transmit spectrally-resolved light such that the final image is a spectrally-resolved or multi spectral image of the specimen.
The instrument of any preceding claim, where the pulsed illumination source provides pulsed white-light.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein an exposure time for each image frame is set using a camera's internal or external shutter.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein an exposure time for each image frame is set by a pulse width of the pulsed illuminating source.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein the specimen moves in the scan direction at a scan speed.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein the instrument scans the specimen in one of brightfield and fluorescence.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein the specimen is illuminated from below by a light source.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein the specimen is illuminated from above by a light source.
The instrument of any preceding claim wherein the detector comprises a plurality of active areas of pixels, each active area acting as a separate MSIA detector.
The instrument of any preceding claim, where the pulsed illumination source provides illumination in three or more colors.
The instrument of any preceding claim, where the pulsed illumination source provides illumination in four or more colors.
The instrument of any preceding claim, where distortion is corrected on an active area of rows of pixels of the detector.
The instrument of any preceding claims, wherein the active area are near the centre of the detector.
The instrument of any preceding claims, wherein a valid line of image data is defined as having been exposed at least twice for each color emitted by the pulsed illumination source.
The instrument of any preceding claims, wherein a valid line of image data is defined as having been exposed at least four times for each color emitted by the pulsed illumination source.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein a color of the pulsed illumination source is changed each time the specimen has moved a distance that causes the image of the specimen projected onto the detector to move a distance greater than the distance between lines of pixels in the detector.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein a color of the pulsed illumination source is changed and the shutter is triggered each time the specimen has moved a distance that causes the image of the specimen projected onto the detector to move a distance equal to at least twice the distance between lines of pixels in the detector.
The instrument of any preceding claim, the camera shutter must be triggered n times when the projected image moves a distance greater than n lines.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein the camera shutter is triggered so that a new frame image is acquired when the projected image moves half way across the required frame image.
The instrument of any preceding claim, the camera shutter must be triggered four times when the projected image move a distance equal to the number of lines in the required frame image.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein MSIA occurs with a region of interest greater than 2 lines.
The instrument of any preceding claim, wherein MSIA occurs with a region of interest greater than n lines.
A method of scanning a specimen to generate an image comprising one or more of the steps all as generally described and shown herein.
An image of a specimen generated using one or more of the instruments, techniques, and/or steps all as generally described and shown herein.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.