Method of analyzing particles in a dilute fluid sample

A method of displaying electronically concentrated microscopic particles, from a dilute biological fluid sample containing said particles, comprising:

• distributing said fluid sample over an extended area substantially with no particle overlapping other particles;
• forming a plurality of optical still images of said sample over said area, with each optical image representing a different portion of said area;
• converting each of said optical still images to an electronic image;
• processing each of said electronic images;
• compositing the images of the different particles from said electronic images to form one resultant electronic image;
• and
• displaying said one resultant electronic image;
• whereby said resultant image is an image of electronically concentrated microscopic particles.

A method of displaying electronically concentrated microscopic particles, from a moving dilute biological fluid sample containing said particles, comprising:

• moving said sample in a direction of flow;
• distributing said fluid sample over an extended area having a width and a thickness both measured perpendicular to the direction of flow, with the width many times the thickness, said sample distributed with substantially no particle overlapping other particles;
• illuminating said fluid at a predetermined location in the direction of flow, with said illumination directed in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of flow;
• forming a plurality of optical still images of said fluid sample, at said location with each optical image representing a different portion of said sample;
• converting each of said optical still images to an electronic image;
• compositing the images of the different particles from said plurality of electronic images to form one resultant electronic image;
• processing said one resultant image;
• and
• displaying said processed image,
• whereby said processed image is an image of electronically concentrated microscopic particles.

A method of displaying electronically concentrated microscopic particles, from a moving dilute biological fluid sample containing said particles, comprising:

• moving said sample in a direction of flow;
• distributing said fluid sample over an extended area having a width and a thickness both measured perpendicular to the direction of flow, with the width many times the thickness, said sample being distributed with substantially no particle overlapping other particles;
• illuminating said fluid at a predetermined location in the direction of flow, with said illumination directed in a direction substantially perpendicular to the direction of flow;
• forming a plurality of optical still images of said fluid sample, at said location, with each optical image representing a different portion of said sample;
• converting each of said optical still images to an electronic image;
• processing each of said electronic images;
• compositing the images of the different particles from said plurality of electronic images to form one resultant elec tronic image;
• and
• displaying said one resultant electronic image,
• whereby said resultant image is an image of electronically concentrated microscopic particles.