Microscopy system having automatic and interactive modes for forming a magnified mosaic image and associated method
First Claim
1. A system for examining biological slides, said system comprising:
- a microscope device;
a scanning stage operably engaged with the microscope device and adapted to support a slide for examination with the microscope device;
a slide handler device operably engaged with the scanning stage and configured to move the slide into and out of engagement with the scanning stage;
an image-capturing device configured to capture an image of the slide examined by the microscope device; and
a computer device operably engaged with the microscope device, the scanning stage, the slide handler device, and the image-capturing device, and configured to cooperate therewith to provide a manual interactive operation mode, an automatic operation mode, and a virtual slide scan operation mode;
in the manual interactive operation mode, the computer device being configured to direct the microscope device, the scanning stage, the slide handler device, and the image-capturing device to be manually controllable for selectively obtaining an image of the slide;
in the automatic operation mode, the computer device being configured to direct the microscope device, the scanning stage, the slide handler device, and the image-capturing device to automatically cooperate to handle and analyze the slide; and
in the virtual slide scan operation mode, the computer device being configured to direct the microscope device, the scanning stage, the slide handler device, and the image capturing device to automatically cooperate to capture a contiguous image of the slide, the contiguous image being larger than a single field-of-view of the slide examined by the microscope device.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
A scanning device for biological slides is provided, which can be operated in an interactive routine mode as well as in an unsupervised high speed automatic mode. In the first case, typical components, which the pathologist is used to operating manually, such as the microscope, the stage and the focus, and which have to be motorized for the automatic unsupervised system mode, are configured to simulate manual use, operation, and response. A non-interlaced area scan camera supports the interactive selection and acquisition of individual images in the manual mode, as well as the continuous high-speed scan motion for the rare event detection and virtual slide scan applications of the system. Due to the particular requirements to accommodate both operational modes, methods are described for constructing the virtual slide out of image tiles with varying overlap areas in the x- and y-directions.
68 Citations
29 Claims
-
1. A system for examining biological slides, said system comprising:
-
a microscope device;
a scanning stage operably engaged with the microscope device and adapted to support a slide for examination with the microscope device;
a slide handler device operably engaged with the scanning stage and configured to move the slide into and out of engagement with the scanning stage;
an image-capturing device configured to capture an image of the slide examined by the microscope device; and
a computer device operably engaged with the microscope device, the scanning stage, the slide handler device, and the image-capturing device, and configured to cooperate therewith to provide a manual interactive operation mode, an automatic operation mode, and a virtual slide scan operation mode;
in the manual interactive operation mode, the computer device being configured to direct the microscope device, the scanning stage, the slide handler device, and the image-capturing device to be manually controllable for selectively obtaining an image of the slide;
in the automatic operation mode, the computer device being configured to direct the microscope device, the scanning stage, the slide handler device, and the image-capturing device to automatically cooperate to handle and analyze the slide; and
in the virtual slide scan operation mode, the computer device being configured to direct the microscope device, the scanning stage, the slide handler device, and the image capturing device to automatically cooperate to capture a contiguous image of the slide, the contiguous image being larger than a single field-of-view of the slide examined by the microscope device. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
-
-
16. A method of creating a virtual slide, comprising:
-
continuously capturing a plurality of discrete images of respective portions of a slide with an image capturing device configured to capture each image as a discrete multi-pixel area representation of the corresponding portion of the slide;
scanning the slide with the image capturing device, commensurately with capturing the plurality of images of respective portions of the slide, in a first scan direction along the slide such that successive images of the plurality of images overlap by a first selected number of pixels in the first scan direction and form a first scanning band;
scanning the slide with the image capturing device, commensurately with capturing the plurality of images of respective portions of the slide, in a second scan direction along the slide such that successive images of the plurality of images overlap in the second scan direction and form a second scanning band, the slide being scanned in the second direction such that the second scanning band overlaps with the first scanning band by a second selected number of pixels; and
combining the overlapping plurality of images in the first and second scanning bands so as to form a single contiguous virtual image of the portions of the slide scanned by the image capturing device. - View Dependent Claims (17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26)
-
-
27. A method of forming a virtual slide from a plurality of images comprising a plurality of discrete groups of merged and connected images spaced apart from each other by a plurality of non-correlatable and unmergeable images, comprising:
-
forming a grid of best estimate orthogonal coordinate pairs for each of the plurality of images, based on an average effective image dimension;
placing each of the non-correlatable and unmergeable images onto the grid at a position corresponding to the best estimate coordinate pair therefor;
sorting the groups of merged and connected images in ascending order according to the amount of images comprising the respective group; and
placing the groups onto the grid, beginning with the group having the smallest amount of images therein and proceeding to the group having the largest amount of images therein, so as to form the virtual slide. - View Dependent Claims (28, 29)
-
Specification