US 7,288,751 B2 · Imaging system, methodology, and applications employing reciprocal space optical design

Abstract

An imaging system, methodology, and various applications are provided to facilitate optical imaging performance. The system includes a sensor having one or more receptors and an image transfer medium to scale the sensor and receptors in accordance with resolvable characteristics of the medium. A computer, memory, and/or display associated with the sensor provides storage and/or display of information relating to output from the receptors to produce and/or process an image, wherein a plurality of illumination sources can also be utilized in conjunction with the image transfer medium. The image transfer medium can be configured as a k-space filter that correlates a pitch associated with the receptors to a diffraction-limited spot associated with the image transfer medium, wherein the pitch can be unit-mapped to about the size of the diffraction-limited spot.

Claims31

Dependent claims

A microscopic imaging system, comprising:

a handheld computer for storing a microscopic image from an object plane;
a camera associated with the handheld computer to receive the microscopic image from the object plane, the camera having a sensor comprising pixels, the pixels having a pixel pitch;
and
at least one optical component that magnifies data from the object plane in order to generate the microscopic image, the pixel pitch having a correlation to the at least one optical component, the correlation providing a range of less than two projected pixels mapped to a diffraction-limited spot in the object plane to one pixel mapped to less than two diffraction-limited spots in the object plane, the at least one optical component comprises a first lens positioned toward the object plane and a second lens positioned toward the sensor, the first lens sized to have a focal length smaller than the second lens to provide an apparent reduction of the pixels within the object plane.

1 more element

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Imaging system, methodology, and applications employing reciprocal space optical design

Life of this patent

Imaging system, methodology, and applications employing reciprocal space optical design

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims31