VIRTUAL MICROSCOPE SYSTEM

• US 20110109735A1
• Filed: 11/09/2010
• Published: 05/12/2011
• Est. Priority Date: 11/09/2009
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Evident Corporation
• Original Assignee: Olympus Corporation
• Inventors: OTSUKA, Takeshi
• Granted Patent: US 8,780,191 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/79
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/02 Details
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/0248 using a sighting port, e.g. camera or human eye
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/027 Control of working procedures of a spectrometer; Failure detection; Bandwidth calculation
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/08 Beam switching arrangements
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/32 Investigating bands of a spectrum in sequence by a single detector
• CPC Class Codes: G01J 3/42 Absorption spectrometry; Double beam spectrometry; Flicker spectrometry; Reflection spectrometry beam switching arrangements G01J3/08
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/365 Control or image processing arrangements for digital or video microscopes G02B21/361, G02B21/362 take precedence

Abstract

A virtual microscope system capable of obtaining a stained sample image and a statistical data of spectra in a short period of time is provided, the virtual microscope system includes an image obtaining unit for obtaining a stained sample image, a spectrum obtaining unit for obtaining a spectrum of the stained sample image, an optical path setting unit for setting an optical path of a light flux passed through the stained sample with respect to the image obtaining unit and the spectrum obtaining unit and a control unit for controlling to repeat obtaining the stained sample image by the image obtaining unit and obtaining the spectrum of the stained sample image by the spectrum obtaining unit in the observation field of the stained sample to create a virtual slide and a spectrum table of the stained sample.

Claims

1. A virtual microscope system for capturing a stained sample to estimate a spectrum, comprising:

an image obtaining unit for obtaining a stained sample image of one or more bands of the stained sample;

a spectrum obtaining unit for obtaining a spectrum at one or more predetermined portions of the stained sample image;

an optical path setting unit for setting an optical path of a light flux passed through the stained sample, with respect to the image obtaining unit and the spectrum obtaining unit, so that the spectrum of the stained sample image can be obtained by the spectrum obtaining unit each time the image obtaining unit obtains the stained sample image; and

a control unit for controlling, in two or more observation fields of the stained sample, to repeat obtaining the stained sample image by the image obtaining unit and obtaining the spectrum of the stained sample image by the spectrum obtaining unit so that a virtual slide and a spectrum table of the stained sample are created.

2. The virtual microscope system according to claim 1, wherein

the optical path setting unit has an optical path switching mirror for switching the optical path of the light flux so that the light flux passed through the stained sample is selectively incident on the image obtaining unit or the spectrum obtaining unit.

3. The virtual microscope system according to claim 1, wherein

the optical path setting unit has a disposition switching mechanism for selectively placing the image obtaining unit or the spectrum obtaining unit on the optical path of the light flux passed through the stained sample.

4. The virtual microscope system according to claim 1, wherein

the optical path setting unit has a beam splitter for splitting the optical path of the light flux so that the light flux passed through the stained sample is incident on the image obtaining unit and the spectrum obtaining unit simultaneously.

5. The virtual microscope system according to claim 1, wherein

the image obtaining unit is any one of an RGB camera, a monochrome camera, a two or more bands camera, and a multiband camera provided with a camera and an optical filter.

6. The virtual microscope system according to claim 1, wherein

the spectrum obtaining unit has an optical magnification increasing unit for magnifying the stained sample image and obtains the spectrum from the stained sample image magnified by the optical magnification increasing unit.

7. The virtual microscope system according to claim 1, further comprising:

a spectrum obtaining position pixel value calculating unit for obtaining a pixel value at the position of the spectrum obtained by the spectrum obtaining unit from the stained sample image obtained by the image obtaining unit, wherein

as the spectrum table, a spectrum table containing at least the spectrum and the pixel value is created.

8. The virtual microscope system according to claim 1, further comprising:

an estimation operator calculating unit for calculating an estimation operator from the spectrum table; and

a spectrum estimating unit for estimating a spectrum of a pixel included in the virtual slide by using the estimation operator.

9. The virtual microscope system according to claim 8, further comprising:

a spectrum selecting unit for selecting a plurality of spectra corresponding to the pixel value of a pixel included in the virtual slide from the spectrum table, wherein

the estimation operator calculating unit calculates an estimation operator for each pixel value from the plurality of spectra selected by the spectrum selecting unit; and

the spectrum estimating unit estimates the spectrum of the pixel that makes up the virtual slide by using the estimation operator for each of the pixel value.

10. The virtual microscope system according to claim 8, further comprising:

a spectrum selecting unit for selecting a spectra corresponding to the pixel value of a pixel included in the virtual slide from the spectrum table, wherein

the spectrum selected by the spectrum selecting unit is a spectrum estimation value.

11. The virtual microscope system according to claim 7, wherein

the pixel value stored in the spectrum table is any one of an obtained pixel value, a pixel value converted to a color space and a feature value calculated from the pixel value.

12. The virtual microscope system according to claim 7, wherein

the spectrum table consists of a data set containing at least the spectrum, the pixel value and the information of the pixel position from which the spectrum is obtained.

13. The virtual microscope system according to claim 7, wherein

the spectrum obtaining position pixel value calculating unit calculates any one of a pixel value of the center pixel in an obtaining area of the spectrum, a statistical value of the pixel value of the pixel in the obtaining area, and a value calculated by convolving the pixel value in the obtaining area with a light-receiving characteristic of the spectrum obtaining unit.