System and method for assessing virtual slide image quality
AssigneeAperio Technologies, Inc.
InventorsAllen Olson, Kiran Saligrama, Dirk G. Soenksen
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Systems and methods for assessing virtual microscope slide image quality are provided. In order to determine whether a virtual slide image has any out of focus areas and is therefore a candidate for manual inspection, the various focus points used to scan the virtual slide image are used to calculate a best fit surface for the virtual slide image. The distance of each focus point from the best fit surface is then calculated and the largest distance is compared to a predetermined value. If the largest distance from a focus point to the best fit surface is larger than the predetermined value, then the virtual slide image is designated as needing a manual inspection and possible re-scan.
Claims44
A computer implemented method for assessing the image quality of a virtual microscope slide image, comprising:
- identifying a plurality of focus points that were used to scan a virtual microscope slide image;
- calculating a best fit surface from the plurality of focus points;
- determining the distance of each focus point from the best fit surface;
- identifying the maximum distance of any focus point from the best fit surface;
- and
- comparing the identified maximum distance of any focus point to a predetermined threshold distance to assess the image quality of the virtual microscope slide image, wherein the predetermined threshold distance is about 5 microns.
A computer implemented system for assessing the image quality of a virtual microscope slide image, comprising:
- a microscope slide scanning system configured to scan a specimen on a microscope slide to create a virtual microscope slide image;
- a memory configured to store the scanned virtual microscope slide image;
- a focus point identifier module configured to identify a plurality of focus points used by the scanning system in scanning a virtual microscope slide image;
- a best fit surface module configured to calculate a best fit surface from the plurality of focus points;
- a distance module configured to identify the maximum distance of any focus point from the best fit surface;
- a comparison module configured to compare the identified maximum distance of any focus point from the best fit surface to a predetermined threshold distance to assess the image quality of the virtual microscope slide image stored in the memory, wherein the predetermined threshold distance is about 5 microns.
A computer implemented method for real time assessment of the image quality of a virtual microscope slide image, comprising:
- identifying a plurality of focus points on a tissue sample on a microscope slide;
- calculating a best fit surface from the plurality of focus points;
- determining the distance of each focus point from the best fit surface;
- identifying the maximum distance of any focus point from the best fit surface;
- comparing the identified maximum distance to a predetermined threshold distance to identify one or more outlier focus points, wherein the predetermined threshold distance is about 5 microns;
- modifying any outlier focus points;
- creating a focal surface from the plurality of focus points and modified focus points;
- and
- scanning the tissue sample on the microscope slide in accordance with the focal surface.
A computer implemented system for assessing the image quality of a virtual microscope slide image, comprising:
- a focus point identifier module configured to identify a plurality of focus points on a tissue sample on a microscope slide;
- a best fit surface module configured to calculate a best fit surface from the plurality of focus points;
- a distance module configured to determine the maximum distance of any focus point from the best fit surface;
- a comparison module configured to compare said maximum distance to a predetermined threshold distance to identify one or more outlier focus points, wherein the predetermined threshold distance is about 5 microns;
- wherein the focus point identifier module is further configured to modify outlier focus points and the best fit surface module is further configured to create a focal surface from the plurality of focus points and modified focus points;
- a microscope slide scanning system configured to scan an image of the tissue sample on a microscope slide in accordance with the focal surface;
- and
- a memory configured to store the scanned image.
A computer readable storage medium having stored thereon one or more sequences of instructions for causing one or more processors to perform the steps for real time assessment of the image quality of a virtual microscope slide image, the steps comprising:
- identifying a plurality of focus points on a tissue sample on a microscope slide;
- calculating a best fit surface from the plurality of focus points;
- determining the distance of each focus point from the best fit surface;
- identifying the maximum distance of any focus point from the best fit surface;
- comparing the identified maximum distance to a predetermined threshold distance to identify one or more outlier focus points, wherein the predetermined threshold distance is about 5 microns;
- modifying any outlier focus points;
- creating a focal surface from the plurality of focus points and modified focus points;
- and
- scanning the tissue sample on the microscope slide in accordance with the focal surface.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.