Imaging system, methodology, and applications employing reciprocal space optical design
An imaging system, methodology, and various applications are provided to facilitate optical imaging performance. The system includes a sensor having one or more receptors and an image transfer medium to scale the sensor and receptors in accordance with resolvable characteristics of the medium. A computer, memory, and/or display associated with the sensor provides storage and/or display of information relating to output from the receptors to produce and/or process an image, wherein a plurality of illumination sources can also be utilized in conjunction with the image transfer medium.
1. A system for generating a digital image, comprising:
a sensor having a plurality of pixels to generate an image for the optical system;
an object plane for positioning therein one or more items under microscopic examination; and
optical media for imaging an object, wherein the optical media defines an image plane, to scale the pixels and to project virtually-reduced pixels in the image plane in accordance with at least one of the following criteria:
(a) the individual virtually-reduced pixels are about a size of a diffraction-limited parameter associated with the optical media;
(b) the individual virtually-reduced pixels are a size of at minimum 0.1% to at maximum about the same size as a diffraction-limited parameter associated with the optical media; or
(c) a diffraction-limited parameter associated with the optical media is a size of at minimum 0.1% and at maximum about the same size of the individual virtually-reduced pixels;
wherein the optical media is associated with the sensor;
the optical media defines in the object plane one or more of a Blur-circle, an Airy disk, and a diffraction-limited spot and one or more of a Blur-circle, an Airy disk, and diffraction-limited spot is one or more of matched, unit-mapped, correlated with the pixels; and
the optical media defines that a Modulation Transfer Function of the sensor can be matched to Modulation Transfer Function of the object plane.
2. The system of claim 1 , the sensor is associated with a digital camera.
3. The system of claim 1 , the optical media further comprising an infinity path to enable receiving the image at the sensor.
4. The system of claim 3 , further comprising a beam splitter to direct the image to the sensor.
5. The system of claim 4 , the beam splitter includes at least one of a beam splitting cube, a plane beam splitter, and a thin pellicle.
6. The system of claim 3 , the optical media is adapted to the infinity path to enable retrofitting of a digital imager into an existing system.
7. The system of claim 3 , the infinity path enables at least one optical module to be associated with the path.
8. The system of claim 7 , the optical module includes at least one of an auto focus module, an epi illumination module, a fluorescence module, a phase encoding module, and a filter module.
9. The system of claim 1 , the optical media is at least one of an industrial optical system, a commercial optical system, and a medical optical system.
10. The system of claim 1 , the diffraction-limited parameter is associated with at least one of a geometrical criterion defined by an energy wavelength and a Numerical Aperture, a Rayleigh criterion, an Airy disk criterion, and a Sparrow's criterion.
11. The system of claim 1 , wherein the optical media comprises an objective lens and a matching lens, wherein the matching lens has a focal length designed to approximate an object-plane diffraction-limited spot size with a pixel dimension.
12. The system of claim 11 , the objective lens comprising a magnification of 10×, 20×, 40×, or 100×.
13. The system of claim 11 , further comprising a set of matching lenses that are correlated to provide diffraction-limited mapping of pixels with a set of objective lenses.
14. The system of claim 1 , the pixels have pitch size of about 2 microns to about 10 microns.
15. The system of claim 14 , further comprising the pixels associated with a resolution lens having a numerical aperture from about 0.1 to about 1.3.
16. The system of claim 14 , further comprising the pixels associated with a magnification lens having a magnification from about 2 times to about 14 times with an associated focal length from about 40 millimeters to about 20 millimeters, the pixels are sized from about 2 microns and 3 microns per pixel.
17. The system of claim 14 , further comprising the pixels associated with a magnification lens having a magnification from about 5 times to about 25 times with an associated focal length from about 75 millimeters to about 38 millimeters, the pixels are sized from about 4 microns and about 6 microns per pixel.
18. The system of claim 14 , further comprising the pixels associated with a magnification lens having a magnification from about 7 times to about 38 times with an associated focal length from about 112 millimeters to about 56 millimeters, the pixels are sized from about 7 microns and about 8 microns per pixel.
19. A method for generating a digital image, comprising:
selecting optical media for generating a microscopic image of one or more specimens in an object plane, wherein the optical media defines an image plane; and
adapting a sensor having a plurality of pixels to the optical media;
wherein the sensor and optical media adapted together scales and projects the pixels as virtually-reduced pixels in the image plane in accordance with at least one of the following criteria:
(a) the individual virtually-reduced pixels are about a size of a diffraction-limited parameter associated with the optical media;
(b) the individual virtually-reduced pixels are a size of at minimum 0.1% to at maximum about the same size as a diffraction-limited parameter associated with the optical media; or
(c) a diffraction-limited parameter associated with the optical media is a size of at minimum 0.1% and at maximum about the same size of the individual virtually-reduced pixels;
wherein the optical media is associated with the sensor;
the optical media defines in the object plane one or more of a Blur-circle, an Airy disk, and a diffraction-limited spot and one or more of a Blur-circle, an Airy disk, and diffraction-limited spot is one or more of matched, unit-mapped, correlated with the pixels; and
the optical media defines that a Modulation Transfer Function of the sensor can be matched to Modulation Transfer Function of the object plane.
20. A system for generating a digital image, comprising:
means for generating a microscopic image of a specimen;
means for digitally sensing the microscopic image in an infinity space; and
means for performing a k-space transformation to promote a predetermined band of k-space frequencies between the specimen and the means for digitally sensing.