Methods and apparatus to perform multi-focal plane image acquisition and compression

An apparatus comprising:

• a contrast detector to compute a contrast metric for a first image of an object at a first focal plane and at a first resolution;
• an acquisition controller to compare the contrast metric to a threshold to determine whether to capture a second image of the object at the first focal plane and at a second resolution, wherein the second resolution is different from the first resolution;
• an image acquirer selectively operable to capture the first and second images;
• and
• an image compression module to store a first representation of the object at the first focal in a file, the file containing a second representation of the object at a second focal plane, wherein the second representation corresponds to a different resolution than the first representation.

A tangible machine readable storage medium comprising machine-readable instructions which, when executed, cause a machine to:

• capture a first image of a portion of an object at a first focal plane and at a first resolution;
• compute a contrast metric for the captured first image;
• compare the contrast metric to a threshold to determine whether to capture a second image of the portion of the object at the first focal plane and at a second resolution, wherein the second resolution is different from the first resolution;
• capture the second image of the portion of the object at the first focal plane and at the second resolution;
• and
• store a first representation of the second image in a file, the file containing a second representation of the portion of the object at a second focal plane, wherein the second representation is at the first resolution.