Managing images of microscopic specimens
AssigneeQ3Dm, LLC
InventorsW. Scott Callaway, Edward A. Hunter
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method for managing a digital image of a biological specimen is disclosed. The method includes storing image data in a storage device. The image data is data for showing the image on a display. The method also includes identifying a portion of the image to be processed and transferring a first portion of the image data from the storage device to a working memory. The first portion of the image data is a portion of the image data for displaying the identified portion of the image on the display.
Claims35
A computer-executed method for processing a pixilated image of a biological specimen, comprising:
- receiving respective portions of the image in a sequence;
- storing a data structure with a plurality of first elements on a computer-readable memory device, each first element corresponding to a respective portion of the image, the first elements being arrayed in a sequence determined according to the sequence in which the corresponding portions of the image are received;
- processing a plurality of pixels in each portion of the image in order to identify any areas of interest within the portion of the image;
- for each identified area of interest within a portion of the image, linking the first element in the data structure that corresponds to the portion of the image in which the identified area of interest is located to a separate second element, and entering information into the second element, thereby facilitating the transfer of pixel data in the image of the identified area of interest from a location outside of the working memory into the working memory;
- and
- transferring into the working memory the information in the second element corresponding to at least one of the identified areas of interest;
- and
- displaying the pixel data of at least one of the identified areas of interest, which have been transferred into the working memory.
A computer program product including computer-executable program code embodied on a computer-readable memory device for causing a programmed computer to store a pixilated image by:
- receiving respective portions of the image in a sequence;
- storing a data structure with a plurality of first elements, each first element corresponding to a respective portion of the image, the first elements being arrayed in a sequence corresponding to the sequence in which the corresponding portions of the image are received;
- processing a plurality of pixels in each portion of the image in order to identify any areas of interest within the portion of the image;
- for each identified area of interest, linking the first element that corresponds to the portion of the image in which the identified area of interest is located to a separate second element, and entering information into the second element, thereby facilitating the transfer of pixal data in the image of the identified area of interest from a location outside of the working memory into the working memory to allow the pixel data of the identified area of interest to be processed;
- and
- transferring into the working memory the information in the second element corresponding to at least one of the identified areas of interest;
- and
- displaying the pixel data of at least one of the identified areas of interest, which have been transferred into the working memory.
A data structure embodied on a computer readable memory device, the data structure being processed by one or more computer processors to transfer areas of interest of an image into a working memory, the data structure comprising:
- an array of primary elements corresponding to respective portions of the image, the position of each primary element in the array identifying the portion of the image corresponding to that primary element,
- wherein, for each portion of the image identified as having at least one area of interest, the primary element corresponding to the identified portion of the image includes a link to at least one separate secondary element, the at least one secondary element specifying a location in a storage device where pixel data of the at least one area of interest resides, the specified location being outside of the working memory, and
- wherein, when the image is received by the one or more computer processors, the data structure causes the one or more computer processors to process at least one portion of the image identified as having at least one area of interest by:
- transferring the pixel data of the at least one area of interest from the specified location of the storage device into the working memory, and
- displaying the transferred pixel data.
A computer-executed method for processing a pixilated image of a biological specimen, comprising:
- receiving respective portions of the image in a sequence and storing the received portions of the image in a storage device;
- storing a data structure with a plurality of first elements on a computer-readable memory device, each first element corresponding to a respective portion of the image, the first elements being arrayed in a sequence determined according to the sequence in which the corresponding portions of the image are received;
- within each portion of the image,
- selecting pixels whose color, intensity, or wavelength satisfies a predetermined criteria, and
- identifying areas of interest, which include at least one selected pixel;
- for each identified area of interest within a portion of the image, linking the first element in the data structure that corresponds to the portion of the image in which the identified area of interest is located to a separate second element, and entering into the second element a location of the storage device in which pixel data of the identified area of interest resides;
- processing the pixel data of a particular area of interest by looking up the corresponding second element to determine the corresponding location of the storage device and transferring the pixel data of the particular area of interest from the determined location of the storage device into the working memory;
- and
- displaying the pixel data transferred into the working memory.
A data structure embodied on a computer readable memory device, the data structure being processed by one or more computer processors to transfer areas of interest of an image into a working memory, the data structure comprising:
- an array of primary elements corresponding to respective portions of the image, the position of each primary element in the array identifying the portion of the image corresponding to that primary element,
- wherein, for each portion of the image identified as having at least one area of interest, the primary element corresponding to the identified portion of the image includes a field containing a pointer to a list of at least one separate secondary element, the list of at least one secondary element specifying a location in a storage device where pixel data of the at least one area of interest resides, the specified location being outside of the working memory.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.