IP Library Granted Patent US 10,198,617
Granted Patent B2
US 10,198,617 · App. 15/591,609 · Granted Feb 5, 2019

Image-acquisition apparatus

Inventor: Masayuki Nakatsuka (Tokyo, JP)
Assignee: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
G06K9/0014G02B21/367G06K9/00134G06K9/036G06T3/4038G06T5/50G06T7/248G06T11/60H04N5/2259H04N5/23254H04N5/23267G06T2207/10056G06T2207/20221H04N5/23293
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Quick Facts
Patent No.
US 10,198,617
App. No.
15/591,609
Granted
Feb 5, 2019
Kind
B2
Abstract

Provided is an image-acquisition apparatus that includes: a stage on which a specimen is mounted; an objective lens that collects light from the specimen mounted on the stage; a motor that drives the stage in the direction intersecting an optical axis of the objective lens; an imaging device that acquires images by capturing the light collected by the objective lens; and a processor comprising hardware, wherein the processor is configured to implement: a deterioration-level calculation unit configured to calculate deterioration levels contained in the acquired images; and an image generating unit configured to generate a pasted image by pasting the acquired images, wherein the image generating unit is configured to generate the pasted image by combining, for a common region of two images that are mutually pasted, an image with lower deterioration level calculated by the deterioration-level calculation unit at a higher combining ratio.

Claims (15)

1. An image-acquisition apparatus comprising:

a stage on which a specimen is mounted;

an objective lens that collects light from the specimen mounted on the stage;

a motor that drives the stage in a direction intersecting an optical axis of the objective lens;

an imaging device that acquires images by capturing the light collected by the objective lens; and

a processor comprising hardware, wherein the processor is configured to:

determine velocity information (Vf) of the stage moved by the motor;

control a storage to store the velocity information (Vf) in association with a pixel value (F(x,y), M(x,y), M′(x,y)) at coordinates (x,y) of the images as velocity information (V(x,y)); and

generate a pasted image (M, M′) by pasting the images acquired by the imaging device, wherein generating the pasted image comprises generating, in a common region (R 2 ) between the pasted image (M) and a newly acquired image (F), the pixel value (M′(x,y)) of the new pasted image (M′) and the velocity information (V′(x,y)) according to the following equations (1)

M ′( x,y )= F ( x,y )( Vf<V ( x,y ))

M ′( x,y )= M ( x,y )( Vf≥V ( x,y ))

V ′( x,y )= Vf ( Vf<V ( x,y ))

V ′( x,y )= V ( x,y )( Vf≥V ( x,y ))  (1).

2. The image-acquisition apparatus according to claim 1 ,

wherein the processor is configured to calculate the velocity information (VF) of the stage on the basis of relative positions of images acquired by the imaging device at different times.

Assignments (2)
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded Jan 25, 2023
From: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
To: EVIDENT CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 062492/0267 →
ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNOR'S INTEREST Recorded May 10, 2017
From: NAKATSUKA, MASAYUKI
To: OLYMPUS CORPORATION
Reel/Frame 042325/0847 →
Priority Claims (1)
JP 2016-096660 · May 13, 2016 · national
Continuity (1)
Related Publication 20170330019A1 · Nov 16, 2017