JP3432851B2 - Microscope remote observation system - Google Patents

Description

Description: BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a remote observation system for microscope images, and more particularly to a remote microscope observation system which enables remote observation of microscopic pathology in the medical field. [0002] Conventionally, for example, in the medical field, pathological diagnosis using a microscope has been regarded as an essential diagnostic item. Then, the microscope image is transmitted from a remote hospital to a university or the like,
A system in which a pathologist at a university makes a diagnosis based on the microscope image has also been proposed. Further, in the conventional microscope remote observation system, since the observation terminal and the transmission terminal communicate with each other through a limited connection between one facility, the processing of the system is performed in consideration of only the hardware configuration of the transmission terminal. The whole system could be constructed just by considering the process. [0004] However, when the number of transmitting terminals is increased by using the observation terminal as a center system and installed at a plurality of facilities and the connection is switched for each facility terminal to perform communication, each transmitting terminal is used. Was a prerequisite that the hardware configuration was the same up to the objective lens.
Therefore, when trying to realize the system as described above, if the hardware configuration changes even slightly, for example, if the objective lens of one magnification of the transmitting terminal is changed to another magnification, the change from the observation terminal Can be instructed to capture an image only at the magnification before the image is captured. Therefore, it affects the process of the entire system including both terminals, and the only solution to this problem is to prepare a separate process between each facility or to change the process of the entire system on a large scale. Was. [0005] Further, as the problems caused by the change of the hardware configuration, the processing contents of the transmitting terminal are changed depending on whether the microscope is a fully automatic type or a manual type. If the correspondence between the magnification and the magnification of the transmitting terminal becomes inadequate, or if the TV camera or camera eyepiece is changed, the range in which the microscope image can be captured depends on the effective diameter of the image sensor of the TV camera and the magnification of the camera eyepiece. Changing was also a problem. The present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and has as its object to provide a microscope remote observation system which is not affected by a change in the hardware configuration of one facility or a difference in the hardware configuration of each facility. Is to provide. [0007] In order to achieve the above object, a microscope remote observation system according to the present invention comprises: a transmission terminal for capturing and transmitting a macro image or a microscope image as an entire image of a specimen; An observation terminal that receives and displays an image transmitted from the transmission terminal, and connects the transmission terminal and the observation terminal.
In the remote microscope observation system having a communication control unit for connection, information on hardware used in the transmission terminal is managed as a system configuration file, and the managed system configuration file is transmitted from the transmission terminal to the observation terminal. Send to
The information processing apparatus further comprises information processing means for automatically adapting the processing processes of the transmitting terminal and the observation terminal based on the contents of the transmitted system configuration file. [0008] [action] That is, the microscope remote observation system of the present invention, information
The information processing means manages information on hardware used in the transmission terminal as a system configuration file, and transmits the managed system configuration file from the transmission terminal to the observation terminal .
Then , the processing processes of the transmission terminal and the observation terminal are automatically adapted based on the contents of the system configuration file .
Further, when the communication control means communicates by connecting a plurality of transmission terminals distributed to the observation terminal, the communication process is performed by automatically switching a processing process for each transmission terminal based on the information of the system configuration file. I do. Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a microscope remote observation system according to all embodiments of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, the present system is roughly divided into a transmitting terminal and an observation terminal. And
The transmitting terminal is provided with an information processing device 1 for performing overall control, and the information processing device 1 includes a CRT.
Display 2, keyboard 3, mouse 4, frame memory 5, motorized XY stage 9, objective lens revolver 1
0, the communication control unit 18 is connected. Further, a TV monitor 6 and a video signal switch 7 are connected to the frame memory 5, and the video signal switch 7 is connected to TV cameras 11 and 13 provided in the microscope 8. The TV camera 13 has a macro lens 14 and is installed on a stand 17 having an XY stage 15 and a light source 16. In addition, the TV camera 11 is provided with a camera eyepiece 12. On the other hand, the observation terminal is provided with an information processing section 19 for performing overall control.
9 is connected to a CRT display 20, a keyboard 21, a mouse 22, a frame memory 23, and a communication control unit 25. Then, the frame memory 23 stores T
It is connected to the V monitor 24. The communication control unit 25 on the observation terminal side is connected to the communication control unit 18 on the transmission terminal side via an ISDN digital public line. In such a configuration, the information processing apparatuses 1 and 19 control each terminal, and the CRT displays 2 and 20 display a system state, an operation menu, and the like to an observer who operates the system. I do. The frame memories 5 and 23 digitally convert NTSC television (TV) signals to generate digital image information, and the TV monitors 6 and 24 use the TV cameras 11 and 13 switched by the video signal switch 7. Is displayed. Further, the mice 4 and 22 are used by the observer to select a menu and specify an image area. Then, both terminals communicate via the communication control units 18 and 25 connected by the communication line. Hereinafter, the process of transferring the system configuration file by the microscope remote observation system of the present invention will be described with reference to the flowchart of FIG. First, both the observation terminal and the transmission terminal are turned on, the system is started by starting each program, and both terminals are activated (step S101). Subsequently, the transmitting terminal captures the entire image of the slide glass by the TV camera 13 and the macro lens 14 provided on the macro stand 17 for capturing the image to be transferred first. Then, an enlarged image of the image is captured by the TV camera 11 and the objective lens 10 of the microscope 8. Further, this image is fetched for the number required for observation and stored in the information processing apparatus 1 as an image file. At this time, the image capturing operation is performed by the keyboard 3 and the mouse 4 based on the message and the menu displayed on the CRT display 102. During this time, the observation terminal is in a communication line connection waiting state (step S102). When the capturing of the initial image is completed in this way, the transmitting terminal and the observation terminal enter a communication state by connecting a communication line (step S103). Then, when the ISDN line is in a communication state, the transmitting terminal sends a system configuration file stored in advance in the information processing apparatus 1 to the observation terminal.
The data is transferred via the ISDN line via 8, 25. Since the content of this file is not changed when it is in a communication state, it needs to be transferred only once per communication. Therefore, the file is transferred immediately after the line connection prior to the transfer of other image files. When the observation terminal receives the file, the observation terminal extracts the necessary data in the form of the file or temporarily from the file by temporarily copying it to another storage area to hold the information and proceed with the observation procedure (step S104). . When the file transfer is completed, the observation starts at the observation terminal. The observation in step S105 is performed by using the keyboard 21 and the mouse 22 according to the message and menu displayed on the CRT display 20 to observe the image file stored in the information processing apparatus 19 by the file transfer, and displaying the image file on the TV monitor 24 for observation. During this time, the transmitting terminal is in a state of waiting for information for specifying the next image to be captured ( step S106 ). Next, the observation terminal selects, based on the transferred image, whether or not to capture an image (Step S107). If the user wants to capture an image, the process proceeds to step S108.
If not, the process proceeds to step S110. During this time, the transmitting terminal is in the same state as in step S105 . Then, when further image capture is designated by the observation terminal, designation of the type of image to be captured next, magnification, position, compression ratio, and the like of the image to be captured is repeatedly executed for a desired number of images. During this time, the transmitting terminal receives the capturing designation information one by one via the ISDN line by the synchronous operation, and starts capturing images based on the designation when the capturing designation of the observation terminal is completed (step S108). When the capture designation is completed, the observation terminal waits for file transfer, and the transmission terminal captures an image in the same procedure as in step S102, based on the information designated in step S108. Step S109). On the other hand, if the next capture is not specified in step S107 , the communication is terminated and the line is released.
The observation ends (step S110). Observation is performed by repeating the above-described operations from step S105 to step S109 until the capture designation is stopped in step S107. Here, FIG. 3 is a diagram showing the contents of the system configuration file transferred by the above operation. The system configuration file is for storing configuration information of hardware provided in the transmission terminal and notifying the contents to the observation terminal. In FIG. 3, D1 is information on a transmitting terminal identification number, and when a plurality of transmitting terminals are connected,
It stores a serial number for distinguishing which terminal the file belongs to. Further, D2 is information on the microscope and stores a type of a fully automatic type or a manual type.
For example, it is recorded as a numerical flag such as "0" for the fully automatic type and "1" for the manual type. D3 is information relating to the objective lens 10, and stores information such as the type, magnification, and number of objective lenses used in the microscope. For example, the type and magnification of the lens are listed in advance in the form of a list of the type and magnification of the lens that is assumed to be used, and the numbers are recorded in a system configuration file and correspond to the list when read out. There are a lens type, a recording method for converting to a magnification, and the like. At this time, the actual number is recorded as numerical data as it is. D4 is information on the TV cameras 11 and 13, and stores the type of the TV camera, the size of the image sensor, and the like. This is also D
The same recording method as in No. 3 is used. D5 is magnification information of the camera eyepiece 12, and data after D6 is composed of data relating to each equipment such as other hardware information. Based on the above operation procedure, a first embodiment will be described with reference to a flowchart of FIG. 4 for discriminating a microscope type at the time of capturing an image by using data D2 of a system configuration file. FIG. 4 shows a process of capturing an image.
109 shows the procedure in more detail. In FIG. 4, when an image capture is instructed, the transmission terminal extracts data D2 relating to the microscope from the storage area of the system configuration file or a copy of the file (step S201). Then, based on the data D2, it is determined whether the microscope is a fully automatic type or a manual type (step S202). When the data D2 is of a fully automatic type, the information processing apparatus 1
The microscope is controlled by sending a command code for instructing switching, focusing, brightness adjustment, and the like (step S20).
3). After this control, if the return code from the microscope 8 is normal , the process shifts to automatic image capture. If the return code is abnormal, the process returns to step S203 to perform control again (step S204). On the other hand, when the data D2 is of a manual type, the operator of the microscope 8 performs operations such as switching of the objective lens 10, focusing, brightness adjustment, etc. on the CRT display 2 as shown in FIG. A message is displayed (step S205). When the microscope adjustment operation is completed, the "confirmation" menu shown in FIG. 5 is designated with the mouse 4, and the process proceeds to image capture in step S207 (step S206). Then, the above steps S203, S204,
Alternatively, the image obtained by the procedures of steps S205 and S206 is converted from the frame memory 5 into an image file, and the image is captured (step S207). As described above, in the first embodiment, it is possible to perform processing for each microscope type by using the microscope information in the system configuration file. Next, as a second embodiment, a description will be given, with reference to the flowchart of FIG. 7, of a magnification specification at the time of specifying image capture by using data D3 of the system configuration file. FIG. 7 shows the procedure for specifying the magnification in step S108 in FIG. 2 in more detail. First, when designation of image capture is executed, the observation terminal selects the image capture position and the capture compression ratio together with the image capture magnification. For this purpose, data D3 relating to the objective lens 10 is extracted from the system configuration file or a storage area of a copy of the file (step S301). Then, based on the data D3, the magnification and the number of the objective lenses 10 provided in the transmitting terminal are obtained, and the extracted contents are, for example, 10 times, 20 times, and 40 times.
If three times are registered, the content shown in FIG. 6 is displayed on the menu screen as a specifiable magnification (step S302). Further, the menu shown in the figure is designated by the mouse 4, and the magnification is selected (step S30).
3). Then, the designated magnification selected by the menu designation is immediately transmitted to the observation terminal by the synchronous operation, thereby acquiring the selected magnification (step S304). As described above, in the second embodiment, by using the information on the objective lens in the system configuration file, the terminal is always provided even if the combination of the objective lenses used for each terminal is different. The lens magnification can be specified. Next, as a third embodiment, macro image capture using data D4 and D5 of the system configuration file will be described.
The procedure for changing the mesh division size at the time of insertion will be described with reference to the flowchart in FIG. Note that a mesh is a method of collectively specifying the position and area of an image to be captured by a microscope from an entire (macro) image as shown in FIG. An area designated based on the size of one image to be captured by the microscope is divided into a size corresponding to the angle of view. In FIG. 8, at the time of initial image capturing, the transmitting terminal first captures the entire image of the slide glass as shown in FIG. 10 by the TV camera 13 and the macro lens 14 mounted on the macro stand 17 (step). S401). Next, as shown in FIG. 11, two points (upper left and lower right diagonal points) 30, 31 for displaying the mesh on the captured whole image are designated by the mouse 4,
The region where the mesh is applied, that is, the region 32 to be captured is designated (step S402). In order to divide the area shown between the two points into an appropriate size, the lengths of X and Y of the reference angle of view are calculated (step S403). At this time,
As shown in FIG. 12, the reference angle of view is determined by the magnification of the objective lens 10 of the microscope mounted on the transmitting terminal and the T.
It changes depending on the size of the image sensor of the V camera 11 and the magnification of the camera eyepiece 12. Therefore, for example, setting conditions such as the size of the image sensor of the TV camera 11 １ ／ [inch], the magnification of the camera eyepiece of 2.5 times, and the magnification of the microscope objective lens 10 as 2 times are set as reference settings. The range that the microscope actually projects is measured under these conditions, and this is determined in advance as a reference angle of view. Next, in order to calculate the angle of view of the current equipment with respect to the reference angle of view, a system configuration file,
Or from the storage area of the copy of the file
Data D4 relating to the V camera and data D5 relating to the camera eyepiece are taken out, and the effective diameter is obtained from the size of the camera image sensor and the magnification of the camera eyepiece (step S404). The effective diameter is obtained by the following equation and represents a range in which an image can be captured. Effective diameter = imaging element size × camera eyepiece magnification Then, based on the effective diameter in the reference setting assumed in step S403, each transmitting terminal uses an imaging element or lens having a different size. Also, the size of the angle of view can be obtained by calculating the ratio to the reference effective diameter. For example, as shown in FIG.
If the effective diameter of the lens and the image sensor assumed to be the reference in 403 is “1” and a certain terminal is a combination of the image sensor 2/3 [inch] and the camera eyepiece 3.3 times, the following equation is used. Indicated by [Mathematical formula-see original document] This value is multiplied by the reference angles of view X and Y to determine the angle of view. That is, in this case, the reference effective diameter value is “1”.
Is "1.76", and the angle of view size is larger than the reference angle of view size. The length between the two points is divided by the angle of view to obtain the number that can be divided (step S4).
05). Then, according to the number of divisions, the TV monitor 6
From the coordinates of the two points on the screen, the division coordinates when dividing into the area are obtained. Further, based on the coordinates, as shown in FIG.
The mesh is displayed on the screen of the V monitor 6 (step S
406). Further, the displayed mesh is confirmed, the menu on the screen of the CRT display 2 is selected by the mouse 4, and if the mesh is to be specified again, the process returns to step S402 to repeat the above procedure. Step S408 is executed (Step S407). Then, the upper left coordinate and the lower right coordinate of each angle of view divided by the mesh are obtained, and the center coordinate of one angle of view is obtained from the coordinates to obtain the position at which the microscope image is captured. The capture position designation is completed (step S408). As described above, in the third embodiment, the information of the TV camera and the eyepiece for the camera in the system configuration file is used, so that even if the camera or the lens used for each terminal is different, the camera is always mounted. It is possible to display a frame line or a mesh corresponding to the effective diameter set. As described in detail above, in the microscope remote observation system of the present invention, a change in the processing process due to a change in the hardware configuration of one facility, and a change in the processing process due to a difference in the hardware configuration of each facility, By automatically executing each communication, a microscope remote observation system having a high degree of freedom regarding hardware and excellent maintainability can be realized. In the above-described embodiment, the transmitting terminal and the observation terminal are connected in a one-to-one manner. The processing process can be adapted by transmitting the system configuration file between the transmitting terminal and the observation terminal in communication. According to the present invention, it is possible to provide a microscope remote observation system which is not affected by a change in the hardware configuration of one facility or a difference in the hardware configuration of each facility.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing a configuration of a microscope remote observation system according to all embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 2 is a diagram for explaining a procedure for transferring a system configuration file by the microscope remote observation system of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a diagram showing contents of a system configuration file transferred by the operation procedure shown in FIG. 2; FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the first embodiment, that is, the determination of the microscope type at the time of capturing an image using the system configuration file information D2. FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a message displayed on the CRT display 2. FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a state where a specifiable magnification is displayed on a menu screen. FIG. 7 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the second embodiment, that is, the specification of the magnification when the image capture is specified by using the system configuration file information D3. FIG. 8 is a flowchart showing an operation of the third embodiment, that is, a procedure of changing a mesh division size when a macro image is captured by using system configuration file information D4 and D5. FIG. 9 is a diagram for describing mesh division of an image. FIG. 10 is a view showing an overall image of a slide glass. FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating a state where two points for displaying a mesh are designated by a mouse 4; FIG. 12 is a diagram showing a reference angle of view. FIG. 13 is a diagram comparing a view angle size with a reference view angle size. FIG. 14 is a diagram showing a state where a mesh is displayed on the screen of the TV monitor 6. [Description of Signs] 1 ... information processing device, 2 ... CRT display, 3 ... keyboard, 4 ... mouse, 5 ... frame memory, 6 ... TV monitor, 7 ... video signal switcher, 8 ... microscope, 9 ... electric X- Y stage, 10 ... Object lens revolver, 11 ...
TV camera, 12: Camera eyepiece, 13: TV camera, 14: Macro lens, 15: XY stage, 1
6 ... light source, 17 ... stand, 18 ... communication control unit, 19 ...
Information processing unit, 20: CRT display, 21: Keyboard, 22: Mouse, 23: Frame memory, 24: T
V monitor, 25 ... communication control unit.

──────────────────────────────────────────────────続 き Continuation of the front page (72) Inventor Kiyofumi Watanabe 2-43-2 Hatagaya, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo Inside Olympus Optical Co., Ltd. (56) References JP-A-64-20449 (JP, A) JP-A-5-30422 (JP, A) JP-A-6-51208 (JP, A) JP-A-6-222281 (JP, A) JP-A-6-250097 (JP, A) JP-A-5-207472 (JP) , A) (58) Field surveyed (Int. Cl. ⁷ , DB name) A61B 5/00 G02B 21/36

Claims (1)

(57) [Claims] 1. A transmitting terminal that captures and transmits a macro image or a microscopic image that is an entire image of a specimen, and receives an image transmitted from the transmitting terminal. An observation terminal to be displayed, and a communication control unit for connecting the transmission terminal and the observation terminal.
The microscope telemonitoring system with bets, manages the hardware of the information used in the transmission terminal as a system configuration file, and sends the managed system configuration file to the viewing terminal from the transmitting terminal, transmitted shea <br / > An information processing method that automatically adapts the processing processes of the sending terminal and the observation terminal based on the contents of the stem configuration file.
A microscope remote observation system comprising a step .