JP2001183364A - Operating method for fine object - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an operating method, for a fine object, in which a drop in the operating efficiency of the operating method can be prevented when many fine objects exist so as to be mixed. SOLUTION: In a collecting treatment for the fine object, a laser beam is condensed so as to irradiate the fine object as an object to be operated, and the fine object is captured by an optical trap so as to be moved and collected. Before the fine object as the object to be collected is moved toward a collecting position, other fine objects which exist near a movement route so as to disturb a moving operation and other fine objects which exist near the collecting position so as to disturb a collecting operation are specified as objects to be excluded. The fine objects as the objects to be excluded are moved to a position which is not disturbing before an operation is started. Thereby, only a specific fine object is used as the object to be operated in a state that the disturbing fine objects do not exist, and the collecting operation can be performed easily and with good efficiency.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a method for operating a microscopic object which performs an operation of capturing and moving a microscopic object such as a microorganism, animal and plant cells.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art In various tests and analyzes in the field of biochemistry and the like, a specific fine object is captured from among fine objects such as microorganisms and animal and plant cells existing in a sample, and various operations are performed. In recent years, laser tweezers have been used for capturing fine objects. This laser tweezers forms an optical trap and captures a fine object existing in a sample solution or the like by condensing and irradiating the laser beam. It has many advantages such as being able to capture an object and performing operations such as moving a captured fine object to an arbitrary position in a sample by scanning with a laser beam.

[0003]

When performing various operations such as capturing, moving, and collecting the fine object, the fine object to be operated does not always exist alone. Usually, multiple different types of fine objects are mixed in the same area,
In many cases, a fine object to be operated and another fine object exist close to each other.

In such a case, it is necessary to move only the target minute object to a blank area where no other minute object exists so as not to simultaneously collect the minute object outside the operation target. Further, even in an operation that does not involve sampling, when a minute object that is not an operation target exists in close proximity, the operation must be performed in a difficult state while avoiding the minute object. As described above, the conventional method for operating a fine object has a problem that when a large number of fine objects are mixed, it takes time to operate only the fine object to be operated, and the operation efficiency is reduced. .

Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a method of operating a fine object which can prevent a decrease in operation efficiency when a large number of fine objects are mixed.

[0006]

According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for operating a fine object, the method comprising: condensing a laser beam emitted by a laser beam irradiating means by an optical system; A method of operating a fine object that captures and moves a fine object that is located near a movement path of the fine object and that hinders the moving operation before moving the fine object to be moved to a predetermined destination. The object was excluded from this movement path.

According to a second aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method for operating a fine object, wherein the laser light irradiated by the laser light irradiating means is condensed by an optical system, irradiated on the fine object to be operated, and the fine object is captured and desired. A method of operating a fine object to perform an operation, wherein prior to an operation on a specific fine object, a position at which another fine object that hinders the operation is captured by the laser beam and does not hinder the operation. To move it up.

According to the present invention, before moving a micro object of a specific operation target to a predetermined position, other micro objects existing near the movement path of the micro object and hindering the movement are eliminated. In addition, prior to an operation on a specific minute object, by moving another minute object that hinders the operation of the minute object to a position that does not hinder the operation, there is no minute object that hinders the operation. In this state, it is possible to easily and efficiently work only on a specific minute object.

[0009]

Embodiments of the present invention will now be described with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a device for operating a fine object according to one embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display screen of the device for operating a fine object according to one embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. FIG. 4 is a flowchart showing a process for collecting a fine object according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIGS. 4 and 5 are explanatory diagrams of a method for operating a fine object according to an embodiment of the present invention.

First, the configuration of a device for operating a fine object will be described with reference to FIG. In FIG. 1, a large number of microscopic objects 3 such as microorganisms, animal and plant cells are present in a mixed state in a solution 2 accommodated in a sample container 1. These fine objects 3
Is an operation target such as capturing, moving, collecting by an operation device, or processing by laser beam irradiation.

An optical system 6 including a half mirror 5 and lenses 4a and 4b is provided above the sample container 1. A laser beam emitted from a laser output unit 8 as a laser beam irradiating unit is incident on the lens 4 b via a galvano scanner 7. The laser beam emitted by driving the laser output unit 8 by the laser output control unit 9 is incident on the galvano scanner 7, then passes through the lens 4b, is reflected by the half mirror 5, and is passed through the lens 4a.
Incident inside. The lens 4b forms an optical trap in the sample container 1 by condensing the incident laser light.

The galvano scanner 7 is a galvanometer mirror 7
a and 7d and lenses 7b and 7c, and galvanometer mirrors 7a and 7
By driving d, the irradiation position of the laser light irradiated into the sample container 1 is scanned, that is, the position of the optical trap is moved. Therefore, the galvano scanner 7 and the galvano scanner driving section 10 are laser light scanning means for scanning the laser light. The optical system 6 condenses the incident laser light and irradiates it into the sample container 1.

A camera 12 is provided above the half mirror 5. The camera 12 captures an image of the fine object 3 in the sample container 1 through the half mirror 5. Image data obtained by imaging is subjected to A / D conversion processing by the input processing unit 14 and input to the main control unit 15. An operation / input unit 13 such as a keyboard and a mouse is connected to the input processing unit 14. In the operation / input unit 13, in addition to inputting operation commands and various numerical data, designation of a fine object to be operated, designation of a destination, and the like are performed by operating a mouse to move a cursor on a display screen.

The main control unit 15 has an image processing function. The main control unit 15 performs image processing on the image data based on various programs necessary for the image recognition processing stored in the first storage unit 17 so as to obtain a sample container. The position of the minute object 3 in 1 is detected. In addition, the main control unit 15 is instructed by the micro object to be operated and the destination of the micro object,
A process for setting a movement path of the minute object is performed. The display unit 16 displays a captured image of the fine object 3 and an operation screen for operation and input.

Along with the setting of the moving route, the main control unit 15
Performs a process necessary to specify another minute object located near the movement path and hindering the movement operation of the minute object, and to perform an operation of moving and removing the minute object. Furthermore, when an operation position for performing processing such as capturing or cutting with a laser beam other than the movement operation is specified, a fine object that is located within a predetermined range near the operation position and hinders the operation is specified, Similarly, processing necessary to perform an operation for eliminating these is performed.

To identify these fine objects, image recognition is used. Using the image recognition function of the main controller 15, the image obtained by the camera 12 is image-recognized to obtain position data (coordinates) of the fine object. In addition, for a fine object that hinders movement or operation of the target fine object, in addition to the position data indicating the current position of the fine object, target position coordinates indicating the movement destination of the fine object are automatically set by the main control unit 15. Is set. These position data and target position coordinates are stored in the second storage unit 18.

The laser output controller 9 and the galvano scanner driver 10 are controlled by a trap controller 11. The position data and target position coordinates of the fine object 3 detected by the main control unit 15 are transmitted to the trap control unit 11 via the second storage unit 18, and the galvano scanner driving unit 10 is controlled based on these data. Thereby, the laser light focused by the optical system 6 can be irradiated to an arbitrary minute object 3 in the sample container 1.

Thus, the fine object 3 irradiated with the laser light is optically captured by the laser light. That is, the laser output section 8, the laser output control section 9, the galvano scanner 7, the galvano scanner driving section 10, and the optical system 6 constitute optical trapping means for capturing the minute object 3 by laser light. The captured fine object 3 is moved by the galvano scanner 7, moved to the pipette 19, and then sucked and collected by the pipette 19.

Next, the operation / input function will be described.
Necessary instructions and inputs are performed on a display screen displayed on the display unit 16. Here, the display screen of the display unit 16 is shown in FIG.
This will be described with reference to FIG. The display screen 20 includes an image frame 21 for displaying an imaging screen in the sample container 1 and operation buttons 22 to 2.
5, a message box 26, an object column 28, a current position coordinate display column 29, and a target position coordinate display column 30 are provided. In the current position coordinate display column 29, position coordinates indicating the current position of the fine object 3 are displayed, and in the target position coordinate display column 30, target position coordinates indicating the destination of the fine object 3 are displayed. In the image frame 21, a captured image in which the minute object 3 is shown and a cursor 27 are displayed.

When the operation button 22 is selected, an object setting, that is, a process of specifying the fine object 3 to be operated on the display screen 20 becomes possible. By selecting the operation button 23, the movement of the fine object 3 specified in the object setting is started. By selecting the operation buttons 24 and 25, the object setting set immediately before is canceled, the trap processing is reset, or all settings are canceled. The message box 26 displays a message prompting an input operation such as an object instruction, and the contents of the work being processed. In the object column 28, an object number for specifying the object specified on the screen is displayed. In the current position coordinate display field 29 and the target position coordinate display field 30, the position coordinates of the current position and the target position of each of the designated fine objects 3 are displayed.

Next, a description will be given, with reference to FIGS. 4 and 5, of the processing for collecting a fine object by the operation apparatus for a fine object, according to the flow of FIG. In this collection process, only a specific collection target is extracted from a large number of fine objects existing in a mixed state. In FIG. 4A, a large number of fine objects 3 including a fine object 3a to be collected are displayed in the image frame 21. Here, an operation of capturing the fine object 3a, moving it to the collection position P by the pipette 19, and performing collection is performed.

First, the minute object 3 to be collected in the image frame 21
The coordinates of a and the sampling position P (target coordinate position) are designated (S
T1). This operation is performed by moving the cursor 27 to overlap the fine object 3a with the sampling position P. Thereby, as shown in FIG. 4B, a moving route R from the current position of the fine object 3a to the sampling position P is set. Next, the micro object 3b located near the movement route R and hindering the movement of the micro object 3a is specified (ST2).

Next, as shown in FIG.
A nearby predetermined range is set, and the minute object 3c that hinders the sampling operation is specified (ST3). Here, a circle C having a predetermined diameter centered on the sampling position P is set as the predetermined range, and the fine object 3c located inside the circle C is specified as an exclusion target. In (ST2) and (ST3), the main control unit 1
5, the position data of the minute objects 3b, 3c is obtained, but the operator may directly instruct (input) the cursor 27 over the minute objects 3b, 3c on the screen without using the image recognition. .

Next, as shown in FIG.
Target position coordinates Eb, Ec to be moved to for b and 3c
Set. For the minute object 3b, the target position coordinates Eb are set at a position sufficiently distant from the movement route R, and for the minute object 3c, the target position coordinates Ec are set outside the circle C, that is, at a position that does not hinder sampling or processing. (S
T4). The setting of the target position coordinates may be directly instructed by the operator on the screen. (ST1) to (S
By the series of processes up to T4), each of the fine objects 3a, 3
The current position coordinates and the target position coordinates of b and 3c are stored in the second storage unit 18.

Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 5B, the fine objects 3b and 3c to be excluded are moved (ST5). In this movement operation, the minute object 3b which hinders the movement operation
Is excluded from the movement route R, and the fine object 3c that hinders the sampling operation is excluded from the circle C (work area). Thereby, the movement route R and the work area C of the minute object 3a are secured. Thereafter, the fine object 3a is moved (ST
6).

The fine object 3a after the movement is completed is shown in FIG.
As shown in (c), the pipette 19 is sucked and collected from the tip of the pipette 19 introduced into the sample container 1 (ST7). Prior to the sampling operation, the other minute objects 3c that hinder the sampling operation of the minute object 3a at the sampling position P are moved out of the circle C, which is a predetermined range, and are eliminated. Sampling mistakes for suctioning other foreign substances are prevented, and accurate sampling operations can be performed efficiently.

Here, as an example of the operation, the pipette 1
9 has been described, the present invention can also be applied to processing operations such as cutting by laser light and other operations performed at specific positions.

[0028]

According to the present invention, before moving a micro object to be operated to a specific position toward a predetermined position, other micro objects existing near the movement path of the micro object and hindering the movement are eliminated. Prior to the operation for a specific minute object, the other minute objects that hinder the operation of the minute object are moved to a position that does not hinder the operation. It is possible to easily and efficiently work only on a specific minute object in a state where no such minute object exists.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of an apparatus for operating a fine object according to an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a display screen of a device for operating a fine object according to one embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a process for collecting a fine object according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 4 is an explanatory diagram of a method for operating a fine object according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 5 is an explanatory diagram of a method for operating a fine object according to an embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 Sample container 3 Fine object 6 Optical system 7 Galvano scanner 8 Laser output part 9 Laser output control part 10 Galvano scanner drive part 11 Trap control part 15 Main control part

Claims (2)

[Claims] 1. A method for operating a fine object in which laser light emitted by a laser light irradiating means is condensed by an optical system, irradiated on a fine object to be operated, and the fine object is captured and moved. Before moving the micro object toward the predetermined movement destination, the micro object is characterized in that other micro objects existing near the movement path of the micro object and obstructing the movement operation are excluded from this movement path. Method of operation. 2. A method for operating a fine object, wherein the laser light emitted by the laser light irradiating means is condensed by an optical system, irradiated on a fine object to be operated, the fine object is captured, and a desired operation is performed. Prior to performing an operation on a specific minute object, the other minute object that interferes with the operation is captured by the laser beam and moved to a position that does not interfere with the operation. Operation method.