MICROSCOPE CONTROL DEVICE AND OPTICAL DISTORTION CORRECTION METHOD

• US 20120044340A1
• Filed: 07/28/2011
• Published: 02/23/2012
• Est. Priority Date: 08/18/2010
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Original Assignee: Sony Corporation (Sony Group Corp.)
• Inventors: Yamamoto, Takashi
• Granted Patent: US 9,176,311 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 348/79
• CPC Class Codes: G02B 21/14 affording illumination for phase-contrast observation

Abstract

A microscope control device includes an offset processing unit that corrects phase contrast information regarding a phase contrast between corresponding phase contrast images, which is generated based on a set of the phase contrast images of a sample which are captured by a microscope, based on offset information of phase contrasts caused by optical distortions unique to the microscope, and a defocus amount calculation unit that calculates a defocus amount of the sample on the basis of the phase contrast information after offset correction.

Claims

1. A microscope control device comprising:

an offset processing unit that corrects phase contrast information regarding a phase contrast between corresponding phase contrast images, which is generated based on a set of the phase contrast images of a sample which are captured by a microscope, based on offset information for phase contrasts caused by optical distortions unique to the microscope; and

a defocus amount calculation unit that calculates a defocus amount of the sample on the basis of the phase contrast information after offset correction.

2. The microscope control device according to claim 1, wherein an offset process by the offset processing unit is a process for subtracting the offset information from the phase contrast information.

3. The microscope control device according to claim 1, wherein the offset information includes reference offset information used as a reference in an offset process and a plurality of pieces of offset information set for respective defocus amounts of the sample,

wherein the offset processing unit performs the offset process for the phase contrast information on the basis of the reference offset information,

wherein the defocus amount calculation unit calculates the defocus amount on the basis of the phase contrast information after offset correction based on the reference offset information, and

wherein the offset processing unit performs the offset process for the phase contrast information again by using offset information corresponding to the calculated defocus amount.

4. The microscope control device according to claim 1, further comprising a defocus amount correction unit that calculates the thickness of a cover glass covering the sample and corrects the defocus amount on the basis of the calculated thickness of the corresponding cover glass.

5. An optical distortion correction method comprising:

correcting phase contrast information regarding a phase contrast between corresponding phase contrast images, which is generated based on a set of the phase contrast images of a sample which are captured by a microscope, based on offset information of phase contrasts caused by optical distortions unique to the microscope; and

calculating a defocus amount of the sample on the basis of the phase contrast information after offset correction.