JP2003222801A - Microscopic image photographing device - Google Patents

Abstract

<P>PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide a microscopic image photographing device which can photograph microscopic degital images of high fineness and high angle of view viewable over the Internet or Intranet at a high speed. <P>SOLUTION: The device has slide glass moving means capable of moving the slide glass on a stage in a horizontal direction or perpendicular direction by moving the stage relatively in the horizontal direction, means for limiting the microscope illuminating light for limiting the illuminating light guided to the slide glass in synchronism with the movement of the slide glass moving stage and still image photographing means for continuously and microscopically photographing the still image of a sample placed on the slide glass. <P>COPYRIGHT: (C)2003,JPO

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a microscope image capturing apparatus for capturing a microscope image of a specimen, and more particularly to a microscope image capturing apparatus capable of capturing a high-definition and high-quality microscope digital image at high speed.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, in a pathological examination for examining a diseased tissue collected from a patient, there are a method of observing with a microscope eyepiece and a method of digitizing a microscope image and observing a still image or a moving image on a CRT monitor. is there.

As a method of digitizing and observing a microscope image, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-281405, when observing a sample using a microscope, the range that can be observed at one time is mainly determined by the magnification of the objective lens. Although the observation range becomes narrower when the objective lens has a higher magnification, a microscope that forms a high-resolution and wide-angle image by combining images of these high-definition microscopic images A device has been proposed.

Further, as an example in which the slide sample can be conveyed and the microscope image can be digitized and stored by using the image digitizing technique and the automatic stage conveying technique, the special table 200 is used.
There is a publication of 0-501844. Furthermore, with the recent network technology, digitized microscopic images can be transferred to a remote location where a pathologist is located, and the pathological images can be diagnosed by telepathology system and rare sample examples are available on the Internet. Various conference systems have been proposed for the purpose of sharing information, and it has become possible to observe even a sample that cannot be observed unless it is originally on the microscope slide glass even if it is not at hand.

[0005]

However, among the above-mentioned prior art examples, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 09-281405, the photographing position control is performed in consideration of the overlap depending on the magnification of the objective lens, but at high speed and at high speed. There is a problem that it is not possible to capture a fine and high-quality digital image of a microscope.

Further, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2000-501844, a flash lamp of a stroboscopic lamp shortens the scanning motion of the stage to a "sufficient stop" to take an image, and all samples by spiral scanning. Although it is supposed that the area can be photographed, there is a problem that the flash of the strobe lamp does not necessarily irradiate the sample image with light having a constant color temperature.

It is an object of the present invention to provide a microscope image photographing apparatus capable of photographing a high-definition and wide-angle microscope digital image that can be observed on the Internet / Intranet at high speed.

[0008]

In order to solve the above problems, the present invention employs the following configurations. That is,
According to one aspect of the present invention, the microscope image capturing apparatus of the present invention can move the slide glass on the stage in the horizontal direction by moving the stage relatively in the horizontal direction with respect to the observation optical axis of the microscope. Slide glass moving means, a certification light source for continuously emitting illumination light, a microscope illumination light limiting means for limiting the illumination light from the certification light source in synchronization with the movement of the slide glass moving stage, and the slide. Still image capturing means for continuously capturing a still image of the sample placed on the slide glass with a microscope while the glass moving means is moving is provided.

As a result, a microscope image with a high angle of view and a high definition can be taken without stopping the stage movement, and a microscope image can be taken under the condition that the color temperature of illumination light is constant. , It is possible to take and create a high-angle and high-definition microscope image. Further, the microscope image photographing device of the present invention comprises a still image necessity determination means for determining whether or not a still image photographed by the still image photographing means by the still image photographing means is necessary, based on a predetermined reference value, and the still image. And a microscopic image creating means for creating a microscopic image by associating a still image determined to be necessary by the image necessity determination means with shooting position information indicating a position on the slide glass at which the still image is microscopically shot. It is desirable to have prepared.

Thus, a microscope image with a high angle of view and high definition can be created without stopping the stage movement. Further, it is preferable that the microscope image photographing device of the present invention further comprises a microscope image storage means characterized by storing the microscope photographed image created by the microscope photographed image creating means in a microscope image data database. .

Further, in the microscope image photographing apparatus of the present invention, it is desirable that the microscope illumination light limiting means has at least one illumination light transmission hole for transmitting the illumination light. Further, in the microscope image capturing apparatus of the present invention, it is preferable that the microscope illumination light limiting unit has an optical path changing mirror for changing the optical path of the illumination light to the slide glass.

Further, the microscope image photographing apparatus of the present invention is a slide glass selecting means for selecting a designated slide glass, and a slide glass for storing a plurality of slide glasses selected by the slide glass selecting means. It is desirable to further include a slide glass transporting means for transporting from the storage means to the stage.

Thus, it is possible to automatically take images of a plurality of slide glasses (upper specimens).

[0014]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a diagram showing the overall configuration of a microscope image capturing apparatus 100 to which the present invention has been applied.

In FIG. 1, a microscope image taking apparatus 100 is shown.
Emits illumination light from a transillumination light source 1 made of, for example, a halogen lamp, passes through an illumination light limiting unit 6, is condensed by a collector lens 2, and is transmitted through various filters 3 (ND filter, LBD filter, etc.). , Field stop 4
The illumination light is narrowed by and the angle is changed by the mirror 5 toward the stage 9.

The illumination light whose angle is changed in the direction of the stage 9 by the mirror 5 passes through the aperture stop 7 and the condenser lens unit 8 and then passes through the illumination opening (not shown) on the stage 9. The sample S of the slide glass 10 on the stage 9 can be illuminated.

Above the stage 9, a plurality of objective lenses 11 are held by a revolver 12 so that they can be replaced. The sample image of the slide glass 10 which is incident on the objective lens 11 having the optical axis in the observation optical path is guided to the camera unit 14 through the intermediate magnification lens 13. In addition,
Although the sample image is guided only to the camera unit 14 in FIG. 1, the sample image can be observed through an eyepiece lens by a beam splitter (not shown).
When the purpose is to digitize a microscope image, an eyepiece lens whose main purpose is to observe with the naked eye may be omitted.

Specimen images picked up by the camera unit 14 can be continuously picked up and digitized by a Motion JPEG board 37 for JPEG compression for each frame. The microscope image capturing apparatus 100 is a slide glass storage unit 1 capable of storing a plurality of slide glasses 10.
6, 19 and slide glass transport units 17, 18
have. And the slide glass storage unit 1
Take out a predetermined slide glass 10 from 6 and stage 9
The glass is transported by the slide glass transport unit 17. Further, after being magnified and observed through the objective lens 11, the slide glass 10 under the objective lens 11 is transported by the slide glass transport unit 18 and stored in the slide glass storage unit 19.

FIG. 1 shows an example in which the slide glass storage unit 16 before image capturing and the slide glass storage unit 19 after image capturing are configured as separate units.
It is also possible to provide one slide glass storage unit and one slide glass transport unit, and return the original slide glass storage unit after taking an image under the objective lens 11.

The CPU 20 carries out the above-mentioned control of photographing the microscope image, control of transporting the slide glass, and control of photographing the photographed microscope image. The CPU 20 loads the control program recorded in the recording medium (for program) 51 and performs control according to the control program. The control program is also equipped with an operation control screen display program for displaying an operation control screen on the operation monitor 53 so that the operator can easily control, and the operator uses the keyboard 55 or the mouse 56 to give an operation instruction. By doing so, it becomes possible to perform operation instructions such as the above-described control of capturing a microscope image, control of transporting a slide glass, and control of capturing a captured microscope image.

The CPU 20 issues a control signal from the CPU bus 49 to each of the microscope unit, the stage transfer unit and the image capturing unit via each interface circuit (hereinafter referred to as I / F circuit). Each of these units
CPU by each I / F circuit and driver for each unit
Connect with 20. For example, the illumination light control of the microscope is performed by changing the lamp voltage by the analog voltage value changing circuit 44 via the transmission illumination light source control I / F 32.

The CPU bus 49 has a camera unit control interface (I / F) circuit 50, a revolver control interface (I / F) circuit 25, and a slide glass storage unit control interface (I / F).
F) circuits 26, 36, slide glass transport control interface (I / F) circuits 27, 35, stage control interface (I / F) circuit 28, capacitor unit control interface (I / F) circuit 29, brightness Aperture control interface (I / F) circuit 30,
Field diaphragm control interface (I / F) circuit 34,
Filter control interface (I / F) circuit 33
Is connected to enable control of each unit (camera unit 14 and the like) from the CPU 20.

Further, the CPU bus 49 has a memory 21,
Recording medium (for image) 22 such as a hard disk, large-capacity recording medium (large-capacity) 23, screen display memory 52, Mo
A connection JPEG board interface (I / F) circuit 24 and a keyboard / mouse control interface (I / F) circuit 54 are also connected.

Further, an illumination light limiting unit control interface (I / F) circuit 31 is also connected to the CPU bus 49. Further, a dedicated driver for electrically driving is connected to each unit, and is connected to each control I / F circuit connected to the CPU bus 49.
These dedicated drivers also include motors, motor drivers, and drive mechanical mechanisms.

For example, a revolver rotation motor driver 38 is prepared for the revolver 12, and similarly slide glass storage unit drivers 39 and 48, slide transport unit drivers 40 and 47, stage driver 58, aperture stop driver 42, condenser lens. Drive driver 41,
Field stop driver 46, various filter control driver 4
5 is connected to each unit.

An illumination light limiting unit driver 43 is connected to the illumination light limiting unit 6. Each unit is equipped with the minimum necessary sensors so that it can perform a predetermined drive. For example, an objective optical axis position sensor is provided so that the revolver can be rotated to stop at the optical axis position of the objective.

The stage 9 can be driven in at least two axes of X and Y, and also has a slide delivery function capable of delivering the slide glass 10 between the slide glass transport unit 17 and the stage 9. Here, the delivery of the slide glass will be described.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining the transportation of the slide glass between the slide glass storage unit and the microscope stage. The delivery of the slide glass can also be performed by the configuration shown in FIG. 2, for example. That is,
The slide glass storage unit 603 of the slide glass storage unit 16 has a plurality of slide glasses 10a, 10b,
10c and 10d can be stored, and the transport suction unit 605
Transport to the delivery position. The carrying direction is indicated by a dotted line A in the figure. The transport suction unit 605 has a suction force such that at least one slide glass can be sucked and held and moved.

The slide glass 10 conveyed to the delivery position relatively moves below the objective lens (not shown) at the conveyance suction portion 604 of the slide glass conveying unit 17. Further, as shown in the figure, the stage 9 is provided with a suction portion movement guide hole at the center of the stage so that the in-stage suction portion 604 can move the slide glass 10 under the objective lens.

Although not shown, the stage 9 may be driven in the Z-axis direction so that focus control can be performed. Needless to say, even if the stage 9 does not move in the Z-axis direction, focus control can be performed even if the revolver unit (not shown) holding the objective lens itself moves in the Z-axis direction.

Although the details of the focus control are not described here, it is easy to have Z correction data in advance, apply autofocus in real time, or execute one-shot autofocus when necessary. It seems to be controllable. Also slide glass 10
Although the brightness may be different depending on the photographing position above, it is considered that the overall adjustment is possible by fixing the exposure by controlling the camera unit 14 from the CPU 20 or correcting the brightness level by software.

With the above configuration, all the units can be controlled from the CPU 20, and the operator can control all the units with the keyboard 55 or the mouse 56 while watching the control screen on the control monitor 53. Become. The above is the description of the basic configuration of the present invention. Next, a microscope image capturing control method using this basic configuration will be described below with reference to FIG.

First, an arbitrary slide glass is taken out from the slide glass storage unit 16. The operator gives an instruction to take out the slide glass on the operation monitor 53. The slide glass stored in the slide glass storage unit 16 has slide glass information (slide management number, organ name, patient sex, patient age, etc.) registered in advance. Among them, it shall have a slide glass information registration function.

The optional slide glass 10 taken out from the slide glass storage unit 16 is moved to the objective lens 1 by the slide glass transport unit 17 and the stage 9.
It is controlled by the CPU 20 so as to move downward by 1. Next, a photographing procedure after the slide glass has moved below the objective lens will be described.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing the flow of the processing for photographing a microscope image. First, in step S801, the start position, end position, moving direction, etc. of the stage moving position are prepared. In step S802, the movement of the stage and the operation of the illumination light limiting unit are started, and at the same time, in step S803, MotionJPE is started.
Start capturing a microscope image on the G board.

Then, in step S804, the movement of the stage started in steps S802 and S803, the operation of the illumination light limiting unit, and Motion JPEG.
It is determined whether or not the image capturing on the board has reached (finished) the stage end position.

If it is determined that the laser beam has not arrived at step S804 (step S804: No), the stage is moved, the operation of the illumination light limiting unit is performed, and the image is captured on the Motion JPEG board until it is determined that the laser beam has arrived. Repeat the crowd. On the other hand, when it is determined in step S804 that the stage has reached the end stage (step S804).
804: Yes) in step S805.
The capturing of the microscope image on the tionJPEG board is terminated, and at the same time, the stage is stopped and the operation of the illumination light limiting unit is stopped in step S806.

Since the continuously photographed microscope images include unnecessary images, only the necessary images are extracted in step S807 to create a high-definition / high-angle-of-view microscope image by combining the images. To save. The illumination light limiting unit, the stage movement operation, and the motion as described above
By inputting an image to the JPEG board and extracting the image, a high-definition, high-angle-of-view microscope image can be created at high speed.

The above-described microscopic image photographing processing will be described in detail with reference to FIGS. 4 to 7. First, the preparation for moving the stage (S801 in FIG. 3) will be described. The image capturing area on the stage may be the entire area of the slide glass or an arbitrary portion, and an operation screen on which the operator can easily change the area designation is displayed on the operation monitor 53. The operation program 5 of the recording medium 22 is displayed on the screen and can be set using the mouse 56 and the keyboard 55.
It may be recorded in 1.

In addition, another photographing unit (not shown) in advance
If it is assumed that the entire area of the slide glass is photographed, the position of the specimen image to be photographed may be automatically recognized based on this image. Regarding the sample image position recognition, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2000-2 filed and published by the present applicant.
Since it is described in Japanese Patent Publication No. 95462, detailed description thereof will be omitted here.

When the photographing area is determined, a plurality of photographing positions on the slide glass 10 that must be photographed are determined.
That is, since the field size of the minimum unit that can be photographed on the slide glass 10 is determined by the CCD size of the objective lens 11, the intermediate magnification lens 13, and the camera unit 14, the field size of the minimum unit as shown in FIG. 4 is used as a reference. Multiple small areas are required.

In this way, a plurality of positions (1, 1) to (m, n) to be photographed on the slide glass 10 are determined. Of course, the photographing position on the slide glass 10 may be set by providing an overlap area. The setting of the small area and the setting when the overlapping area is provided are described in JP-A-9-281405.

The plurality of photographing positions (1, 1) to (m, n) obtained as described above are usually moved to respective photographing positions, and after the movement is completed, the stage 9 is completely stopped to photograph. Another possible method is to move to the next shooting position and repeat shooting. However, in such a method, since the stage is once stopped, it takes time to shoot. Therefore, it is possible to shorten the shooting time by operating the stage continuously without stopping and shooting a microscope image.

Microscope image capturing apparatus 100 according to the present invention
Is an illumination light limiting unit, and Motion for image capturing
This is a device for taking a microscope image using a JPEG board (37 in FIG. 1). First, the illumination light limiting unit in the present invention will be described.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining the illumination light limiting unit. In FIG. 5, (a) is an example in which the motor shaft is directly attached to the rotary plate, and (b) is an example in which a sensor is attached to detect the rotational position and feedback control of the rotational operation is performed. Is.

The illumination light limiting unit irradiates the specimen on the slide glass with the illumination light in the same short time (time) as when photographing with the stage stationary, as shown in FIGS.
A pinhole is provided in the rotating plate as shown in FIG. The rotating plate connects the motor so that it can rotate in response to an input pulse of a stepping motor or the like.

Here, the diameter of the pinhole (hole) and the angular velocity of the rotary plate must satisfy the following formula 1 in order to have the same effect as when the stage is stationary and the image is taken. r = ω × t / 2 (Equation 1) FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining the equation 1 (r = ω × t / 2).

In FIG. 6, the illumination light is a pinhole (hole).
The time during which the sample is irradiated through t is the time t, the angle of the pinhole (hole) from the center of the rotating plate is ΔΘ, the rotating plate angular velocity is ω, and ΔΘ ≈ 2 × r (r: pinhole (hole)) Then, it is necessary to set r = ω × t / 2 as shown in Expression 1.

The pinhole (hole) cannot be changed because it is formed by mechanical processing, and the irradiation time (t) is fixed because it is the same time (shortness) as the time when the stage is stationary on the sample. become. Therefore, it is necessary to control the speed of the rotating plate. For the speed control of the rotating plate, it is necessary to take the stage moving position into consideration. For example, when the rotary plate is controlled to rotate once while the stage is moved from the position (1,1) in FIG. 4 to the position (1,2), and the pinhole irradiates the specimen with illumination light. The CPU 20 controls so that the rotation speed of is the above-mentioned angular velocity.

The above is the description of the illumination light limiting unit of the present invention. An acousto-optic device (electronic shutter) that changes the direction of light may be used instead of the illumination light limiting unit as described above. As described above, by using the illumination light limiting unit 6, the illumination light is applied to the specimen on the slide glass only at the position of the slide glass to be photographed ((1,1) to (m, n) in FIG. 4). Will be irradiated.

Image input to the Motion JPEG board 37 starts from the slide glass photographing start position ((1, 1) in FIG. 4), the stage 9 is moved, and the slide glass photographing end position (FIG. 4 (m, n). )). Illumination light limiting unit 6 for Motion
On the nJPEG board, an image illuminated with illumination light and a black image are created as JPEG data for each frame. If this is left as it is, a useless image is also created, so the following processing is required.

The image data of the Motion JPEG board is sequentially stored in the recording medium 22 via the CPU bus 49. The microscope image stored in the recording medium 22 also includes unnecessary data, and is therefore excluded.

FIG. 7 is a flow chart showing the flow of processing for eliminating unnecessary images. First, step S901
At, the captured image information is loaded. Step S
In 902, it is determined whether or not all the brightness level values of the image loaded in step S901 are 0.

When it is determined in step S902 that all the bits are 0 (step S902: Yes), the loaded image is processed (discarded) in step S903 as an unnecessary image. On the other hand, if it is determined in step S902 that all are not 0 (step S902: N
o), in step S904, the loaded image is processed (saved) as a necessary image.

Further, the above-mentioned image necessity judgment processing is M
It may be provided in the motion JPEG board, or only the necessary images may be stored in the recording medium 22 via the CPU bus 49. The image determined to be necessary is
Based on the shooting position information, the image data is saved in a predetermined address in the memory 21, finally large image data is created to create a high-definition / high-angle-of-view microscope image, and the image is saved in the recording medium 22 or the large-capacity recording medium 23. Of course, it is also possible to save individual images and their position information without creating a large image.

In the above-described embodiment (Example 1), the illumination light limiting unit 6 is an example in which the illumination light is limited by using the pinhole (hole) and the rotating plate. In this case, the specimen of the slide glass may be irradiated with the illumination light when necessary, and there is also the following embodiment (Example 2).

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining the limitation of the illumination light in the second embodiment. The second embodiment has the same basic configuration as that of the first embodiment, and has a CPU-controlled microscope and slide glass transport units 17 and 18, and is a Motionio.
This is a microscope image capturing apparatus having a function of continuously storing images on the nJPEG board 37 and extracting only necessary images. However, the microscope image capturing apparatus 10 of the second embodiment
No. 0 is the illumination light limiting unit for limiting the illumination light in the first embodiment.
Different from

That is, in the microscope image taking apparatus 100 of the second embodiment, the galvano mirror 507 is replaced with the mirror 5 of FIG. 1 as shown in FIG.
An illumination light limiting unit for controlling the operation of the galvanometer mirror 507 is provided by 06. Galvo driver 506 is CP
CPU 20 can be controlled via the U-bus 49, and the CPU is controlled so that the galvano mirror 507 irradiates the specimen S on the slide glass 10 placed on the stage 9 with the illumination light only when the stage position to be imaged is reached. To do.

The intermediate magnification lens 501 corresponds to the intermediate magnification lens 13 in FIG. 1, the condenser lens unit 504 corresponds to the condenser lens unit 8 in FIG. 1, and the aperture stop 505 corresponds to the aperture stop 7 in FIG. A polygon mirror may be used instead of the galvano mirror.

In the above-mentioned first and second embodiments, the basic structure of the microscope image photographing apparatus 100 of the present invention and the photographing method thereof have been described. Next, an example of a network system using the microscope image photographing apparatus of the present invention (Example 3) will be described. FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an example in which the pathological diagnosis support network system is combined with the microscope image capturing apparatus 100 of the present invention.

First, the pathological sample information is input by the acceptance / registration client 701 in the pathological diagnosis support network, and the slide glass specimen in which the organ is cut out, embedded, sliced, and stained is created, and the microscopic image capturing unit 703 of the present invention. The required slide glass information is registered in.

The input information is transmitted via the local network 706 and managed by the pathological information management server 704. The pathological information management server 704 manages the above-mentioned input information in a database, and can be easily searched and registered. The slide glass that has been registered for acceptance is subjected to high-angle and high-definition clear-angle image capturing at the image capturing client terminal 702 connected to the microscope image capturing apparatus 703 of the present invention. The high-angle-of-view / high-definition microscope image is transferred to the pathological information management server 704 and registered in a database in a large-capacity recording medium 705. When the image capturing is completed, the inspection is ready, and the inspection clients 707 and 70 connected to the local network 706.
At 8 the pathologist can do the examination. The inspection is performed not only through the local network 706 but also by the router 709.
Inspection client 71 connected to a public line 710 via a remote network via a router 711
Even 2 can be inspected. Note that, in FIG. 9, the microscope image photographing apparatus 100 including the photographing client terminal 702 and the microscope image photographing unit 703 corresponds to the microscope image photographing apparatus 100 described with reference to FIG. 1.

As described above, by combining the microscopic image capturing apparatus 100 of the present invention with the pathological diagnosis support network system, more efficient pathological diagnosis support can be achieved by the unified management of work and work status. Further, it can be used not only for the above-mentioned pathological diagnosis support network system but also for educational purposes.

That is, a plurality of users can share information and use it for learning without creating many slide glass specimens of rare cases, or a common specimen can be shared by a plurality of users (students etc.) to observe. It is also possible to perform a test to perform an inspection. As described above, the embodiments of the present invention have been described with reference to the drawings. However, the microscope image capturing apparatus to which the present invention is applied may be implemented in any of the above-described embodiments as long as its function is executed. The present invention is not limited to the above, and may be a single device, a system including a plurality of devices, an integrated device, or a system in which processing is performed via a network such as LAN or WAN. Needless to say.

Further, a CPU connected to the bus, a memory of ROM or RAM, an input device, an output device, an external recording device,
It can also be realized by a system including a medium driving device, a portable recording medium, and a network connection device. That is, the ROM or RAM memory recording the program code of the software that realizes the system of the above-described embodiment, the external recording device, and the portable recording medium are supplied to the microscope image photographing device, and the microscope image photographing device It is needless to say that this is also achieved by the computer reading and executing the program code.

In this case, the program code itself read from the portable recording medium or the like realizes the novel function of the present invention, and the portable recording medium or the like recording the program code constitutes the present invention. It will be. As a portable recording medium for supplying the program code, for example,
Flexible disk, hard disk, optical disk,
Magneto-optical disk, CD-ROM, CD-R, DVD-R
OM, DVD-RAM, magnetic tape, non-volatile memory card, ROM card, various recording media recorded via a network connection device (in other words, communication line) such as electronic mail or personal computer communication can be used. .

Further, the functions of the above-described embodiments are realized by the computer executing the program code read on the memory, and the OS running on the computer based on the instructions of the program code.
Performs a part or all of the actual processing, and the processing realizes the functions of the above-described embodiments.

Furthermore, a program code read from a portable recording medium or a program (data) provided by a program (data) provider is inserted into a computer or a function extension unit connected to the computer. After being written in the memory provided in the CPU, the CPU provided in the function expansion board or the function expansion unit performs a part or all of the actual processing based on the instruction of the program code, and the processing described above also applies to the embodiment described above. The function of can be realized.

That is, the present invention is not limited to the embodiments described above, and various configurations and shapes can be adopted without departing from the gist of the present invention.

[0070]

As described above, according to the present invention,
Since it is possible to capture a microscope image without stopping the stage movement, it is possible to provide a microscope image capturing apparatus capable of capturing a high-definition, high-angle-of-view microscope image in a short time.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing an overall configuration of a microscope image capturing apparatus to which the present invention has been applied.

FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining conveyance of a slide glass between a slide glass storage unit and a microscope stage.

FIG. 3 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for photographing a microscope image.

FIG. 4 is a diagram for explaining a minimum unit visual field size that can be photographed on a slide glass.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining an illumination light limiting unit.

FIG. 6 is a diagram for explaining Expression 1 (r = ω × t / 2).

FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing a flow of processing for eliminating unnecessary images.

FIG. 8 is a diagram for explaining limitation of illumination light according to the second embodiment.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an example in which the pathological diagnosis support network system is combined with the microscope image capturing apparatus of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

1 Transmitted Illumination Light Source 2 Collector Lens 3 Filter 4 Field Stop 5 Mirror 6 Illumination Limiting Unit 7 Brightness Stop 8 Condenser Lens Unit 9 Stage 10, 10a, 10b, 10c, 10d Slide Glass 11 Objective Lens 12 Revolver 13 Intermediate Magnification Lens 14 camera unit 16 slide glass storage unit 17, 18 slide glass transport unit 19 slide glass storage unit 20 CPU 21 memory 22 recording medium (for image) 23 recording medium (large capacity) 24 Motion JPEG board control interface (I / F) circuit 25 Revolver control interface (I / F) circuit 26 Slide glass storage unit control interface (I / F) circuit 27 Slide glass transport control interface (I
/ F) circuit 28 Stage control interface (I / F) circuit 29 Capacitor unit control interface (I
/ F) circuit 30 Brightness diaphragm control interface (I / F) circuit 31 Illumination light limiting unit control interface (I
/ F) circuit 32 Light source control interface (I / F) for transmitted illumination
Circuit 33 Filter control interface (I / F) circuit 34 Field diaphragm control interface (I / F) circuit 35 Slide glass transport control interface (I
/ F) circuit 36 Slide glass storage unit control interface (I / F) circuit 37 Motion JPEG board 38 Revolver rotation motor driver 39 Slide glass storage unit driver 40 Slide transport unit driver 41 Condenser lens drive driver 42 Brightness diaphragm driver 43 Lighting Light limiting unit driver 44 Analog voltage value changing circuit 45 Various filter control drivers 46 Field stop driver 47 Slide transport unit driver 48 Slide glass storage unit driver 49 CPU bus 50 Camera unit control interface (I /
F) Circuit 51 Recording medium (for program) 52 Screen display memory 53 Operation monitor 54 Keyboard / mouse control interface (I
/ F) Circuit 55 Keyboard 56 Mouse 58 Stage driver 100 Microscope image capturing device 501 Intermediate magnification lens 504 Condenser lens unit 505 Brightness diaphragm 506 Galvano driver 507 Galvano mirror 603 Slide glass storage sections 604, 605 Transport suction section 701 Reception / registration Client 702 Imaging client terminal 703 Microscope image capturing unit 704 Pathological information management server 705 Large-capacity recording medium 706 Local networks 707 and 708 Inspection client terminal 709 Router 710 Public line 711 Router 712 Inspection client S Sample

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Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. In a microscope image capturing apparatus, a slide glass moving means capable of moving the slide glass on the stage in the horizontal direction by moving the stage in the horizontal direction relative to the observation optical axis of the microscope. A proof light source that emits illumination light continuously; a microscope illuminating light limiting unit that limits the illuminating light from the proof light source in synchronization with the movement of the slide glass moving stage; And a still image capturing means for continuously capturing a still image of the sample placed on the slide glass with a microscope. 2. A still image necessary / unnecessary judging unit for judging whether or not a still image photographed by a microscope by the still image photographing unit is necessary on the basis of a predetermined reference value, and the still image necessary / unnecessary judging unit. And a microscopic image creating means for creating a microscopic image by associating a still image determined to be necessary with imaging position information indicating a position on the slide glass on which the still image is microscopically imaged, and The microscope image capturing apparatus according to claim 1. 3. The microscopic image storage means for storing the microscopic image created by the microscopic image creating means in a microscopic image data database, according to claim 2. The described microscope image capturing device. 4. The microscope image according to claim 1, wherein the microscope illumination light limiting unit has at least one illumination light transmission hole for transmitting the illumination light. Imaging device. 5. The microscope illumination light limiting means has an optical path changing mirror for changing the optical path of the illumination light to the slide glass, as set forth in claim 1. Microscope image capturing device. 6. A slide glass selecting means for selecting a designated slide glass, and a slide glass selected by the slide glass selecting means is conveyed onto a stage from a slide glass storing means for storing a plurality of slide glasses. The microscope image capturing device according to claim 1, further comprising: a slide glass conveying unit.