JP4563693B2 - Microscope photographing apparatus, brightness adjustment method, and brightness adjustment program - Google Patents

Description

  The present invention relates to a microscope photographing apparatus having a photographing apparatus for photographing an observation image of a subject by a microscope, a brightness adjustment method and a brightness adjustment program executed in the microscope photographing apparatus, and in particular, the light quantity of a light source can be changed. The present invention relates to a possible microscope photographing apparatus, a brightness adjustment method, and a brightness adjustment program.

  Conventionally, in a so-called digital microscope having a digital camera (photographing device) for photographing an observation image of a subject with a microscope, the microscope and the digital camera are integrally configured, and a light source for irradiating the subject is provided in the microscope. Has been. The brightness of the light source can be adjusted by the observer using the light source brightness knob. The subject is observed on a monitor (display device) attached to the digital microscope or a monitor (display device) of a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as PC) connected to the digital microscope.

  The GUI screen for controlling the digital microscope on the monitor has an automatic exposure / manual exposure switching and an exposure adjustment bar at the time of manual exposure, and the exposure time is generally performed by operating the bar position. In addition, various functions such as still image shooting, video recording, and browsing of captured images are mounted on the GUI screen.

The following conventional techniques exist in such a digital microscope and its light source control method.
Prior art 1
In a digital microscope having a light source brightness adjustment knob, when this knob is operated, the subject brightness is adjusted by pulse-controlling the LED light source in synchronization with the CCD drive pulse. An optical zoom knob is provided independently of this knob, and the LED light source is pulse-controlled according to the zoom position. As a result, the sample brightness can be made constant regardless of the zoom position (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Prior art 2
When a dark specimen is photographed in a digital camera, the gain is increased. However, if the gain is increased unnecessarily, the image quality is deteriorated. Therefore, the gain value is set high so that noise is not noticeable, the aperture is opened, and the insufficient part is realized by extending the exposure time. In this case, since the display update of the live image is also several seconds to a few tens of seconds like the exposure time, the changed subject image is appropriately displayed even if the orientation, orientation, zoom magnification, etc. of the digital camera are changed. Takes time. Therefore, an exposure cancel button is provided (see, for example, Patent Document 2).
JP 2003-185931 A JP 2002-290803 A

  However, in the above prior art 1, it is possible to adjust the brightness of the light source, but the exposure time and gain cannot be controlled by this brightness adjustment. Therefore, in order to realize appropriate brightness of the subject, it is necessary for the observer to set the light source in advance and then control the exposure time and gain. In this case, if the brightness of the light source is not appropriate, there is a problem that the exposure time becomes long and the display update speed (frame rate) of the live image becomes slow and it is difficult to observe particularly when the light source is dark. In addition, there is a problem in that the image quality deteriorates as the gain increases.

In the prior art 2, image quality degradation is suppressed to the minimum in order to limit the gain increase when the subject is dark, but there is a problem that the exposure time is prolonged and the frame rate is lowered.
The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned drawbacks of the prior art, and it is possible to realize a comfortable frame rate for observation without deteriorating the image quality to be observed regardless of the brightness of the subject. An object of the present invention is to provide a microscopic photographing apparatus, a brightness adjusting method and a brightness adjusting program executed in the microscopic photographing apparatus.

The present invention employs the following configuration in order to solve the above problems.
That is, according to one aspect of the present invention, the microscope photographing apparatus of the present invention is a microscope photographing apparatus having a photographing device for photographing an observation image of a subject by a microscope, and projects the subject illuminated by a light source. and the element, and based on the reflected light or transmitted light of light irradiated to the subject, and shading information acquisition means for acquiring a luminance value of the subject, the brightness value obtained by the shading information acquisition means suitable brightness Light / dark information determining means for determining whether or not the light source is within a range ; light intensity control means for controlling the light intensity of the light source applied to the subject based on the result determined by the light / dark information determining means; and the light / dark information If the above luminance values determined by the determining means is light intensity of the light source that is controlled by and the light quantity control means outside the above range it has reached the maximum amount of light having the above microscope Characterized by and a exposure control means for controlling the exposure time exposed to the imaging device reflected light or transmitted light from the object.

As a result, the frame rate when the brightness of the subject is optimally controlled is in a state suitable for live observation.
Further, the microscope imaging apparatus of the present invention, if the exposure time is controlled by the exposure control means is longer than 1 second 10 minutes, before the time of converting into an electric signal by the imaging device the optical signal from the subject further comprising a gain control means to control the amplification factor of the electrical signal for converting the optical signal from the sensitivity or the object for serial optical signal by the imaging device is desirable.

Further, the microscope imaging apparatus of the present invention, the suitable brightness range when determining the upper Symbol shading information determining means, it is desirable that can be set arbitrarily.

As a result, the frame rate is suitable for live observation in both cases of automatic and manual subject brightness control.
In the microscope photographing apparatus of the present invention, it is desirable that the light amount range controlled by the light amount control means can be arbitrarily set.

Thereby, an appropriate brightness control method according to the state of the microscope photographing apparatus can be selected.
In addition, the microscope photographing apparatus of the present invention is an episcopic method of the episcopic method of the episcopic method of the epi-illumination method, the epi-illumination dark-field spectroscopic method, the epi-illumination differential interference spectroscopic method, and the epi-fluorescence spectroscopic method In this case, the range of the amount of light controlled by the light amount control means is from the minimum light amount to the maximum light amount of the microscope, and the microscopy method using the microscope is a transmission bright field microscopy method, a transmission phase difference microscopy method, In the case of transmission spectroscopic methods such as transmission differential interference microscopy, transmission dark field microscopy, and transmission polarization microscopy, the range of light quantity controlled by the light quantity control means is from the minimum light quantity to the maximum light quantity of the microscope. It is desirable to be a part of

Thereby, it is possible to select an appropriate brightness control method according to the microscopic method of the microscope photographing apparatus.
Further, the microscope photographing apparatus of the present invention outputs the grayscale information acquired by the grayscale information acquisition means in the monitor observation mode for displaying on the display device or in the still image acquisition mode for storing in the recording device as a still image. further comprising an output means to, when the output means is a still image acquisition mode, the light quantity control means preferably controls the amount of light to be constant.

Thus, the frame rate when the subject brightness is optimally controlled is in a state suitable for live observation, and in a state suitable for photographing at the time of photographing.
Further, according to one aspect of the present invention, the brightness adjustment method of the present invention is a brightness adjustment method executed by a computer having a photographing device that captures an observation image of a subject by a microscope, and is illuminated by a light source. projecting the subject to the imaging device, and based on the reflected light or transmitted light of light irradiated to the subject, acquires the luminance value of the subject, the acquired luminance values is within the range of appropriate brightness whether to determine, based on the discriminated result, and controls the amount of the light source to be irradiated to the subject, the brightness value is the amount of light of the light sources and the control outside the above range, the above microscope When the maximum amount of light is reached, the exposure time for exposing the reflected light or transmitted light from the subject to the image sensor is controlled.

As a result, the frame rate when the brightness of the subject is optimally controlled is in a state suitable for live observation.
Moreover, the brightness adjustment method of the present invention, if the exposure time is above SL control is longer than 1 second 10 minutes, the optical signal in converting the optical signal from the object into an electrical signal by the image pickup device It is desirable to control the sensitivity to the above or the amplification factor of the electric signal for converting the optical signal from the subject by the image sensor .

As a result, the frame rate when the brightness of the subject is optimally controlled is in a state suitable for live observation.
Further, according to one aspect of the present invention, the brightness adjustment program of the present invention projects the subject illuminated by the light source onto an image sensor with respect to a computer having a photographing device for photographing an observation image of the subject with a microscope. a step of, by based on the reflected light or transmitted light of light irradiated to the subject, the procedure for obtaining the luminance value of the subject, the brightness value obtained by the procedure of obtaining the luminance value of the proper brightness A procedure for determining whether or not the light source is within a range ; a procedure for controlling the light amount of the light source that irradiates the subject based on a result determined by the procedure for determining the luminance value ; and the luminance value is within the range. If the amount of light is controlled by procedures and controlling the amount of light outside reaches the maximum amount of light having the above microscope, to expose the reflected light or transmitted light from the object to the image pickup device A step of controlling the exposure time, a program for execution.

As a result, the frame rate when the brightness of the subject is optimally controlled is in a state suitable for live observation.
In addition , the brightness adjustment program of the present invention converts the light signal from the subject into an electrical signal by the image sensor when the exposure time controlled by the procedure for controlling the exposure time is longer than 1/10 second. the optical signal from the sensitivity or the subject with respect to the optical signal when it is desired to further have the steps of controlling the amplification factor of the electrical signal converted by the image pickup device.

  As a result, the frame rate when the brightness of the subject is optimally controlled is in a state suitable for live observation.

According to the present invention, even when the subject is dark, the frame rate does not become slow because the exposure time is not lengthened. Therefore, the performance of observing the subject is improved.
Further, according to the present invention, even when the subject is dark, the gain is not increased, so that the image quality of the subject to be observed does not deteriorate. Therefore, the performance of observing the subject is improved.

  Further, according to the present invention, since the light amount adjustment and the exposure control are integrated, it is not necessary to control both settings independently, and the operability is improved. Separate setting switches and operation levers are unnecessary for light amount adjustment and exposure control, and the cost can be reduced accordingly.

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings.
First, a first embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 1 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the first embodiment of the present invention.
The LED illumination unit 1 collects the light emitted from the LED 2 with a collector lens 3 and illuminates the subject 5 fixed on the stage 4. The subject image illuminated by the LED 2 is imaged on the CCD 8 as an image pickup element by the objective lens 6 and the imaging lens 7, digitized by the microscope photographing apparatus 101, personalized by the communication cable 105 through the communication control system 102. It is transmitted to a computer (hereinafter referred to as PC) 103.

The PC 103 is configured to allow the observer to observe the subject 5 by converting the received electronic file into a format that can be displayed on the monitor 104 on the PC 103 and then displaying it on the monitor 104.
Further, the projection magnification of the formed subject image can be changed by the zoom mechanism 10. The zoom mechanism 10 has a configuration in which the zoom axis rotates by driving the zoom volume 11, the zoom lens group 12 moves by the rotation, and the projection magnification can be varied.

FIG. 2 is a functional block diagram of the microscope photographing apparatus and the PC to which the first embodiment of the present invention is applied.
In FIG. 2, the dimming setting unit 13 sets the amount of LED light determined to be optimal from the luminance level of the observation image.

  When the observer drives the zoom volume 11, the drive amount is input to the CPU 16. The CPU 16 receives an input of the zoom volume and an input from the dimming setting unit 13, outputs an LED control signal corresponding to the input, and controls the dimming of the LED illumination unit 1 via the LED drive pulse generator 21. The LED drive pulse generator 21 generates a drive pulse for performing drive control of the CCD 8, and sets the supply voltage to the LED 2 of the LED illumination unit 1 in synchronization with the drive cycle T of the CCD 8 and the energization pulse width t. It is a variable. The energization pulse width t is input from the minimum pulse width to the continuous lighting that is the maximum pulse width, for example, according to a value of 0 to 255, which is input to the LED drive pulse generator 21.

  Further, the microscope photographing apparatus 101 is connected to the PC 103 by the communication cable 105 from the CPU 16 through the communication control system 102. It should be noted that the power sources of the electric control parts such as the LED illumination unit 1 and the microscope photographing apparatus 101 are supplied from the PC 103 through a power line included in the communication cable 105.

  The PC 103 includes a PC-communication control system 106 that transmits and receives communications with the microscope photographing apparatus 101, a memory (RAM) 107 that temporarily stores images and operating application software, and execution objects for images and application software. Are stored in a hard disk (HD) 108, a monitor 104, a memory (RAM) 107, etc., a monitor control system 109 that converts images, application software, and other information into a monitor display format, and a PC that performs processing in the PC 103 -It consists of CPU110. The hard disk (HD) 108 stores an execution object (DCS.exe) of microscope photographing apparatus control application software capable of communicating with the microscope photographing apparatus 101, photographing control, displaying a photographed image, editing, and the like. .

Next, the operation of the microscope photographing apparatus 101 configured as described above will be described.
First, the dimming setting unit 13 outputs a numerical value corresponding to the dimming amount to the CPU 16 in order to adjust the emitted light amount. Further, a value corresponding to the zoom position by the rotation of the zoom mechanism 10 is input to the CPU 16. Then, the CPU 16 issues a digital signal to the LED drive pulse generator 21 so that the optimum LED light amount is obtained from both the light control amount and the zoom position.

  Since the LED drive pulse generator 21 continuously changes the energization pulse width t in synchronization with the drive cycle T according to the input value, for example, the value to be set for the dimming setting unit 13 is adjusted. When the light amount setting range is 1/2 position and the zoom position is 1 time, the energization pulse width t is controlled to be about half of the CCD driving period T.

  At this time, when the value set by the light control setting unit 13 is set to the minimum of the light control amount setting range and the zoom position is set to the minimum position, the input value to the LED drive pulse generator 21 is 0. The energization pulse width t is the minimum width tmin, and the light intensity is adjusted to the minimum light quantity Min light quantity. When the value set by the dimming setting unit 13 reaches the maximum of the dimming amount setting range, the input value to the pulse generator 21 is the maximum value 255, the energization pulse width t is the same as the maximum T, and the continuous lighting is performed. Therefore, the light intensity is adjusted to the maximum light amount that is the maximum light amount.

  Therefore, as shown in FIG. 3, which shows the relationship between the value set by the dimming setting 13 and the amount of light on the CCD, the value set by the dimming setting unit 13 is varied to change the continuous illumination light. Dimming is possible. At the same time, since light control is performed by pulse control synchronized with the drive pulse of the CCD 8, there is no change in color temperature even when light control is performed, and light control that can be observed on the monitor 104 can be performed. .

Here, the function of the light control setting unit 13 will be described in detail.
The dimming setting unit 13 has 0 to 255 as the light amount setting value, and the light amount setting value 0 is indicated by the Min light amount in FIG. 3 and the light amount setting value 255 is indicated by the Max light amount. The subject image formed on the CCD 8 is digitized by the AD converter 17 and input to the CPU 16. In this case, the subject image is digitized in the range of 0 to 255 for each CCD pixel by the AD converter 17 and input to the CPU 16. Here, if the average value of all the input pixels (hereinafter referred to as luminance average value) is close to 0, the image is displayed on the monitor 104 as a dark image, and if it is close to 255, the image is displayed as a bright image. This average luminance value is calculated by the CPU 16 and input to the dimming setting unit 13.

  The dimming setting unit 13 calculates the light amount setting value so that the luminance average value is approximately 180 (170 to 190), and outputs the light amount setting value to the CPU. The dimming setting unit 13 stores the output value to the CPU 16. The CPU 16 receives this value and instructs the LED drive pulse generator 21 to set the LED light source 1.

FIG. 4 is a diagram illustrating an average luminance value input to the dimming setting unit 13 and a light amount increase / decrease value corresponding thereto.
In FIG. 4, the horizontal axis represents the average brightness value, and the vertical axis represents the light intensity increase / decrease value.
The light amount increase / decrease value indicates an increase / decrease value from the current light amount set value. For example, when the luminance value is 100, since the light intensity increase / decrease value is 80, the current light intensity setting value held by the dimming setting unit 13 is increased by 80. For example, when the luminance value is 180, the light amount increase / decrease value is zero. This means that the current light amount is appropriate, so the current light amount is maintained as it is. Furthermore, when the luminance value is 255, it is necessary to darken the subject image, but since the light amount increase / decrease value is −75 from FIG. 4, the current dimming setting unit 13 holds from the current light amount. The light amount setting value is reduced by 75.

The light amount setting value determined by the operation of the light adjustment setting unit 13 is instructed to the LED drive pulse generator 21 via the CPU 16 to determine the LED light source amount.
Next, the operation of application software that controls the microscope photographing apparatus 101 will be described.

As described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2, the microscope photographing apparatus 101 (for example, DC-1; hereinafter, DC-1) is connected to the PC 103 by the communication cable 105.
The DCS. When exe is executed, the application software 200 shown in FIG. 5 is displayed on the monitor 104. Hereinafter, the operation in this case will be described in detail.

  First, DCS. When exe is activated, the type (digital microscope type) of the microscope photographing apparatus 101 connected to the PC 103 is acquired. This is performed by issuing a digital microscope type acquisition command “GetCamera” from the PC-CPU 110 to the microscope photographing apparatus 101 connected to the PC 103 via the PC-communication control system 106. The DC-1 connected to the PC-communication control system 106 via the communication cable 105 receives the command “GetCamera” by the communication control system 102 and sends it to the CPU 16. In response to the received command “GetCamera”, the CPU 16 transmits (replies) the type DC-1 of the microscope photographing apparatus 101 from the communication control system 102. The reply command in this case has a format in which a space and a response value are added to the received command, and is “GetCamera DC-1”.

The PC 103 receives this command “GetCamera DC-1” and recognizes that the connected microscope photographing apparatus 101 is DC-1. Then, the PC 103 activates the application software 200 of FIG. 5 from this information and displays it on the PC monitor 104.
Here, the application software 200 shown in FIG. 5 will be described.

In the digital microscope type column 201, DC-1 which is the microscope photographing apparatus type 101 acquired by communication is displayed.
The live image 202 is a moving image that displays the current sample image in real time, and displays and updates about 10 to 30 frames per second (hereinafter referred to as a frame rate). The frame rate of 10 to 30 frames mainly depends on the exposure time. When the exposure time is 1/10 second, 1/10 second is required for the exposure operation in one shooting, so the frame rate of 10 frames is the maximum value. On the other hand, when the exposure time is as high as 1/100 or 1/1000, the exposure operation time is short. In this case, a frame rate of 30 sheets is possible.

  When the shooting button 203 is pressed, the image at that time is stored in the hard disk (HD) 108 as a still image. When the recording button 204 is pressed, recording is started, and the moving image displayed on the live image 202 is continuously stored in the hard disk 108 at intervals of the frame rate of the live image. When the recording button 204 is pressed again, saving to the hard disk 108 is completed. In this case, the number of frames of the moving image stored in the hard disk 108 is set to the frame rate of the live image display during the recording time from when the recording button 204 is pressed to start recording until the recording button 204 is pressed again to stop recording. Multiply it. Therefore, for example, if the frame rate is 10 frames / second and the recording time is 20 seconds, 10 frames / second × 20 seconds = 200 frames are stored on the hard disk as one moving image file. If a frame rate of 10 frames / second is specified in the image header when creating a moving image file, the frame rate is 10 frames / second during playback. Therefore, the moving image state of the subject similar to that at the time of recording can be observed with the reproduced image.

  An end button 208 is a button to be pressed when ending the application software. The screen switching button 209 includes a “camera” button for controlling the microscope photographing apparatus 101 such as photographing and a “browsing” button for viewing a photographed image. In FIG. 5, the “camera” button is selected.

FIG. 6 shows a case where the “Browse” button is pressed. In FIG. 6, since four images are displayed as the captured image 210, the captured image can be confirmed.
FIG. 7 is a flowchart showing the flow of brightness adjustment processing to which the first embodiment of the present invention is applied.

The flow of the brightness adjustment process will be described with reference to FIG.
In step S1, DCS. When exe is activated, in step S2, the exposure time is set to 1/100 second, and the gain is set to 1 time (minimum value). In this case, each exposure time and gain value is set to DC-1 by communicating with the CPU 16 from the PC-CPU 110 via the PC-communication control system 106. In this case, since the exposure time is sufficiently faster than the frame rate (30 frames / second) of the live image, the frame rate is not reduced by the exposure process. Further, since the noise component of the image can be suppressed by setting the gain value to the minimum value of 1, the image quality is not deteriorated.

Next, in step S3, the CPU 16 calculates an average luminance value (shading information) of the subject 5, and determines whether or not the average luminance value is appropriate brightness.
When it is determined that it is appropriate in step S3 (step S3: Yes) (here, if the average luminance value is approximately 180 (170 to 190), it is determined that it is appropriate), the process is performed as it is. Exit. On the other hand, when it is determined that it is not appropriate (step S3: No), for example, the average luminance value calculated in step S3 indicates the relationship between the average luminance value indicating the brightness of the live image 202, the light amount, the exposure time, and the gain. In the case of the position of the brightness value A in FIG. 8 shown, since it is darker than the appropriate brightness range (average brightness value is about 180) shown in FIG. 8, the light amount control is performed in step S4. The light quantity control method in this case is performed by the operation of the dimming setting unit 13 and the operation of the LED drive pulse generator 21 via the CPU 16.

Next, in step S5, the CPU 16 calculates the average luminance value of the subject 5 again, and determines whether or not the average luminance value has an appropriate brightness.
If it is determined in step S5 that it is appropriate (step S5: Yes), the process is terminated as it is. On the other hand, if it is determined that it is not appropriate (step S5: No), since it is still darker than the appropriate brightness range shown in FIG. 8, first, in step S6, it is determined whether the light quantity is maximum (max). to decide.

  If the amount of light is not the maximum (step S6: No), the process returns to step S4 to control the amount of light again. If the amount of light is the maximum (step S6: Yes), for example, the luminance in FIG. When the average luminance value that was the position of the value A becomes the position of the luminance value B, exposure control is performed in step S7. Here, the exposure time can be controlled within a range from 1/100 to 1/10. When the exposure time is 1/10, the frame rate of 30 frames / second cannot be maintained and is about 10 frames / second. However, at this level, there is no problem in observing the live image. . In this exposure control, the CPU 16 calculates an optimal exposure time from the average luminance value acquired by the CPU 16 and sets it in the CCD 8. Since exposure control is performed so that the average luminance value is within an appropriate brightness range (see FIG. 8), the exposure time is set longer than 1/100. Here, it is assumed that the brightness value C is obtained by setting the exposure time to 1/10 of the maximum in the exposure control in step S7.

In step S8, the CPU 16 further calculates an average luminance value of the subject 5, and determines whether or not the average luminance value has an appropriate brightness.
If it is determined in step S8 that it is appropriate (step S8: Yes), the process is terminated as it is. On the other hand, if it is determined that it is not appropriate (step S8: No), since it is still darker than the appropriate brightness range shown in FIG. 8, it is determined in step S9 whether the exposure time is maximum (max). To do.

  When the exposure time is not the maximum (step S9: No), the process returns to step S7 and the exposure time is controlled again. When the exposure time is the maximum (step S9: Yes), for example, the exposure time control in step S7 is performed. When the average luminance value that was the position of the luminance value B in 8 becomes the position of the luminance value C, gain control is performed in step S10. In this case as well, control is performed by the CPU 16 as in the exposure time control.

In step S11, an average luminance value is calculated, and it is determined whether or not the average luminance value has an appropriate brightness.
When it is determined that it is appropriate in step S11 (step S11: Yes), the process is terminated as it is. For example, in the case of the luminance value D in FIG. 8, the process ends because it is within an appropriate brightness range. On the other hand, when it is determined that it is not appropriate (step S11: No), it is determined whether or not the gain is the maximum (max) in step S12.

  If the gain is not the maximum (step S12: No), the process returns to step S10 and the gain is controlled again. If the gain is the maximum (step S12: Yes), the light amount, the exposure time, and the gain are controlled in step S13. A warning message indicating that it is impossible to output is output and the process ends.

With the above operation, the brightness of the live image 202 is automatically adjusted to an appropriate brightness by automatically and integrally controlling the light amount of the LED light source, the exposure time, and the gain.
If the average luminance value is changed from the luminance value A in FIG. 8 to the luminance value D only by the light amount control in step S4, the exposure time and the gain remain in the initial state. Similarly, after the light intensity control in step S4 and the exposure control in step S7, when the brightness value D is reached, the gain remains in the initial state.

  As described above, DCS. When exe is started, the exposure time and gain value are automatically in a state suitable for live image observation, and the light source light amount, exposure time, and gain value are automatically set by the CPU 16, and the live image is set to an appropriate brightness. Is done. Therefore, when the subject is dark, the exposure time is not lengthened, so the frame rate does not slow down. Further, when the subject is dark, the gain is not increased, so that the image quality does not deteriorate.

Furthermore, since the light amount adjustment and the exposure control are integrated, it is not necessary to control both settings independently, and the operability is improved. In addition, since an independent setting switch, operation lever, etc. are unnecessary, the cost can be reduced accordingly.
FIG. 9 is a functional block diagram of a microscope photographing apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

  In FIG. 9, a microscope photographing apparatus 900 has a photographing apparatus 930 that photographs an observation image of a subject with a microscope 910, and includes a light and shade information acquisition unit 940, a light and shade information determination unit 950, a light amount control unit 960, and an exposure control unit 970. . Further, an amplification factor control means 980 is provided.

The density information acquisition unit 940 acquires the density information (luminance value) from the subject based on the reflected or transmitted light of the light irradiated on the subject via the photographing device 930 such as a digital camera.
The light / dark information determining unit 950 determines whether the light / dark information acquired by the light / dark information acquiring unit 940, for example, the average luminance value is within a brightness range sufficient for observation. This range can be arbitrarily set in advance.

The light amount control unit 960 controls the amount of light applied to the subject based on the result determined by the density information determination unit 950.
When the light amount controlled by the light amount control unit 960 reaches a limit value (for example, the maximum light amount as a function of the microscope 910, it can be arbitrarily set). The exposure time of reflected light or transmitted light from the subject at 930 is controlled.

  In addition, when the speculum method using the microscope 910 is an epi-illumination speculum method such as an epi-illumination field method, an epi-illumination dark-field spectroscopic method, an epi-illumination differential interference spectroscopic method, and an epi-illumination fluorescence spectroscopic method, the light amount control is performed. The range of light quantity controlled by the means 960 is from the minimum light quantity to the maximum light quantity of the microscope 910, and the spectroscopic methods using the microscope 910 are transmission bright field spectroscopic method, transmission phase difference spectroscopic method, transmission differential interference. In the case of an episcopic method such as a spectroscopic method, a transmitted dark field spectroscopic method, and a transmitted polarized light spectroscopic method, the range of the light amount controlled by the light amount control means 960 is from the minimum light amount to the maximum light amount that the microscope 910 has. It can also be part of

  Further, when the exposure time controlled by the exposure control unit 970 reaches a limit value (for example, when the exposure time of the photographing apparatus 930 is longer than 1/10 second), the amplification factor control unit 980 When sensing an optical signal from a subject and converting it to an electrical signal, the sensitivity to the optical signal or the amplification factor (gain) of the conversion to the electrical signal is controlled.

  Further, the microscope photographing apparatus 900 displays the light / dark information acquired by the light / dark information acquisition unit 940 on the display device 931 provided in the photographing apparatus 930 or the display device 921 provided in the personal computer 920 connected to the microscope photographing apparatus 900. It has means for outputting in the observation mode, or outputting in the still image acquisition mode for storing as a still image in the recording device 932 included in the photographing device 930 or the recording device 922 included in the personal computer 920. When the output means is in the still image acquisition mode, the light quantity control means 960 can also control with the light quantity kept constant.

FIG. 10 is a flowchart showing the flow of brightness adjustment processing to which the present invention is applied.
In step S100, density information (luminance value) from the subject based on reflected light or transmitted light of the light applied to the subject is acquired via a digital camera or the like.
In step S101, for example, an average luminance value is obtained based on the acquired shading information, and it is determined whether or not the average luminance value is within a brightness range sufficient for observation.

If it is determined that the brightness is sufficient (step S101: Yes), the process ends. If it is determined that the brightness is not sufficient (step S101: No), the light amount is the limit value in step S102. It is determined whether or not.
If the amount of light is not the limit (step S102: No), the amount of light applied to the subject is controlled in step S103, and the process returns to step S100. On the other hand, when the amount of light is the limit (step S102: Yes), it is determined in step S104 whether the exposure time in the digital camera or the like is the limit.

  If the exposure time is not the limit (step S104: No), the exposure time of reflected light or transmitted light from the subject in the digital camera or the like is controlled in step S105, and the process returns to step S100. On the other hand, if the exposure time is the limit (step S104: Yes), the sensitivity to the optical signal or the electrical signal when detecting the optical signal from the subject in the digital camera or the like and converting it to the electrical signal in step S106. It is determined whether or not the gain of conversion to is a limit.

  When the gain is not the limit (step S106: No), the gain in the digital camera or the like is controlled in step S107, and the process returns to step S100. On the other hand, if the gain is the limit (step S106: Yes), if the brightness is not yet sufficient, a warning is output and the process ends in step S108.

  The above is the description of the first embodiment of the present invention, but a luminance peak value may be used instead of the luminance average value input to the dimming setting unit 13. For example, in the case of a subject image in which only a few points with a luminance value of about 180 are scattered on a background with a luminance value of approximately 0, such as a starry sky, the average luminance is a value close to zero. However, in the case of such a subject, there are many cases where several bright spots are to be observed, and it is desirable that the luminance value of the bright spots has an appropriate brightness. Therefore, the CPU 16 extracts the luminance peak value which is the maximum value from the luminance value of the subject, and the light adjustment setting unit 13 controls the light amount using this. In this case, the light control accuracy is improved when the brightness of the fluorescent microscope image is controlled because there are many subjects such as a starry sky.

Next, a second embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
The difference from the first embodiment described above is that the observer can freely set the brightness adjustment. The following description will focus on the different parts.
FIG. 11 is a diagram illustrating an example of an application software execution screen according to the second embodiment.

Compared to the application software 200 (see FIG. 5) of the first embodiment described above, a brightness setting bar 206 and an automatic brightness adjustment setting radio button 212 are added. Others are the same as in the first embodiment.
The automatic brightness adjustment setting radio button 212 is a radio button for switching the setting of the brightness of the image displayed on the live image 202. When “Yes” is selected, the brightness is automatically adjusted. If “No” is selected, the brightness is set according to the position of the brightness setting bar 206. In the example shown in FIG. 11, “No” is selected. The brightness setting in this case is as follows.

  That is, the brightness setting bar 206 is a setting of the brightness of the image displayed on the live image 202, and the light amount setting command “SetLight m from the PC 103 to the DC-1 according to the position of the brightness setting bar 206. ”, An exposure setting command“ SetExp n ”, and a gain setting command“ SetGain p ”are transmitted. Here, m, n, and p are numbers corresponding to the position of the brightness setting bar 206, m is the light amount setting value (0 to 255), n is the exposure time (1/100 to 1/10), and p is It is a multiple of the gain (1 to 4 times).

FIG. 12 is a diagram showing m, n, and p values for each position of the brightness setting bar 206.
For example, it is assumed that the observer sets the position of the brightness setting bar 206 to the position of the luminance value E. In this case, as shown in FIG. 12, the light quantity m is 40, the exposure time n is 1/100, and the gain is 1. These values are set by transmitting to DC-1. Similarly, when the observer sets the position of the brightness setting bar 206 to the position of the luminance value F, the light amount m is 255, the exposure time n is 1/40, and the gain is 1 time.

When the automatic brightness adjustment setting radio button 212 is set to “Yes”, the subject brightness is automatically set by the same control as in the first embodiment.
Therefore, when the observer adjusts the brightness, the light amount, the exposure time, and the gain are automatically optimized and controlled by the position of the brightness setting bar 206. For this reason, when the brightness is increased, the amount of light is first controlled, so that the exposure time is not inadvertently lengthened, and the reduction in the frame rate can be minimized. Similarly, since the gain is not inadvertently multiplied, deterioration of image quality can be minimized. Accordingly, the brightness of the observer can be easily adjusted, and the user can concentrate on the subject observation.

Next, a third embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 13 is a diagram for explaining the outline of the third embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 14 is a functional block diagram of a microscope photographing apparatus and a PC to which the third embodiment of the present invention is applied. is there.
FIG. 13 is different from FIG. 1 in which the sample detection switch (sw) 18 is added. FIG. 14 also shows that the sample detection switch 18 is added. This is different from FIG. 1 describing the first embodiment.

The specimen detection switch 18 detects what kind of specimen (for example, a slide glass or a chalet).
FIG. 15 is a diagram showing a state where a slide glass is placed on the stage as a specimen, and FIG. 16 is a diagram showing a state where a chalet is placed as a specimen on the stage.

  The sample detection switch 18 is a switch on the stage 4, and when the sample is placed so as to cover the sample detection switch 18, the sample detection switch 18 is in the direction of the arrow in the drawing (FIGS. 15 and 16) depending on the weight of the sample. Pressed. As a result, the specimen detection switch 18 is turned on / off, and it is possible to detect whether or not the specimen is placed on the stage 4. The pressed state is the on state of the sample detection switch. However, as shown in FIG. 15, the position of the specimen detection switch 18 is usually set at a position where the slide glass used in the transmission illumination microscope is not turned on. For this reason, in the case of a slide glass specimen, it is not in the on state. On the other hand, in FIG. 16, the biological specimen by the chalet is placed on the stage 4. In this case, the diameter of the chalet is larger than that of the slide glass, and the specimen detection switch 18 can be turned on. This on-off state is input to the CPU 16 and reflected in the following light amount control.

FIGS. 17 and 18 are diagrams for explaining the light amount control by turning on the specimen detection switch 18.
FIG. 17 shows a case where the sample detection switch 18 is off. In this case, the light amount control range is 0 to 255. On the other hand, FIG. 18 shows a case where the sample detection switch 18 is on, and the light amount control range is 0 to 200.

  For the brightness control of the subject when the sample detection switch 18 is off as shown in FIG. 17, the same operation as in the first embodiment described above is performed. Then, the brightness control of the subject when the sample detection switch 18 is on as shown in FIG. 18 is different only in that the maximum value (max) of the light amount is 200 instead of 255. Therefore, in the case of a slide sample, strong light may be applied by brightness control. However, in the case of a chalet sample, control that does not increase the amount of light beyond a certain amount is possible even if the sample is dark.

  Therefore, it becomes possible to switch the subject brightness control method according to the state of the sample to be used, and the operability of the observer is improved. For example, with a slide sample, even if it is a dark sample, it is not necessary to reduce the frame rate, which is important for focusing, etc., and if there is a possibility of damage to living organisms due to bright light irradiation, such as observation of live daphnia in a chalet, the amount of light is increased. Measures such as pressing are automatically performed.

Further, instead of providing the specimen detection switch 18, the brightness control method can be changed by the observer operating DC-1.
FIG. 19 is a diagram illustrating an execution screen example of the application software when the observer can change the brightness control method.

Compared with the application software 200 (see FIG. 5) of the first embodiment described above, an observation specimen transmittance setting radio button 213 is added. Others are the same as in the first embodiment.
The observation specimen transmittance setting radio button 213 is a radio button for switching the setting of the brightness of the image displayed on the live image 202. When “low” is selected, the transmittance is low and the live image observation on the monitor becomes dark. The brightness control is most suitable for observation of a specimen, and when “normal” is selected, the brightness control is optimal for observation of a specimen with a live image brighter than when “low” is selected. In the example shown in FIG. 19, “low” is selected.

FIG. 20 is a diagram illustrating the relationship between the light amount, the exposure time, the gain, and the average luminance value when the observation sample transmittance setting radio button 213 is provided.
In FIG. 20, the solid line is the control when “low” is selected, and the dotted line is the control when “normal”. The method of controlling the light amount, the exposure time, and the gain when this “normal” is selected is the same as that in the first embodiment. On the other hand, as shown in FIG. 20, when “low” is set, the amount of start light is brighter and the exposure control range is shifted to the longer side than when “normal”. This makes it easier to control the brightness of a dark specimen when it is “lower” than “normal”. In addition, since the amount of start light and exposure time are for dark specimens, the control time is shortened.

Further, instead of providing the observation specimen transmittance setting radio button 213, the brightness control method may be varied depending on the type of the microscope photographing apparatus 101 connected to the PC 103.
For example, when a microscope photographing apparatus other than the above-described DC-1 is connected to the PC 103, brightness control as shown in FIG. 18 is performed, and the apparatus connected to the PC 103 is only DC-1. Then, brightness control as shown in FIG. 17 is performed. Here, it is assumed that the electric control and operation of DC-1 are performed by power supply from the PC 103. However, when a plurality of microscopic imaging apparatuses including DC-1 are connected to the PC 103, if the power capacity of the PC 103 consumed by each microscopic imaging apparatus is limited, the power capacity of the PC 103 is not compressed and malfunctions. It is possible to prevent problems such as performance degradation. In the brightness control of FIG. 18, since the maximum amount of light is smaller than that of the brightness control of FIG. 17, it is possible to reduce the power supply capacity consumed by DC-1.

FIG. 21 is a flowchart for explaining brightness control switching.
This is basically the same as the flowchart shown in FIG.
In step S1, DCS. When exe is activated, in step S2, the exposure time is set to 1/100 second, and the gain is set to 1 time (minimum value).

  Next, in step S2-1, the PC-CPU 110 investigates what type of microscope imaging apparatus is connected to the PC 103. In step S2-2, as a result of the investigation in step S2-1, whether or not there are a plurality of microscope imaging apparatuses connected to the PC 103, for example, there is a microscope imaging apparatus connected to other than DC-1. Judge whether there is no.

  If it is determined in step S2-2 that there are not more than one (when it is determined that there is no microscope photographing apparatus connected to other than DC-1; step S2-2: No), the process proceeds to step S3 in FIG. The same processing as in the first embodiment is performed. On the other hand, when it is determined that there is a microscope photographing apparatus connected to other than DC-1 (step S2-2: Yes), the average luminance value of the subject 5 is calculated by the CPU 16 as in step S3 of FIG. Then, it is determined whether or not the average luminance value is appropriate brightness.

  And when it is judged that it is appropriate at step S3 (step S3: Yes), a process is complete | finished as it is. On the other hand, when it is determined that it is not appropriate (step S3: No), in step S4-1, the light amount control is performed within the limited range as shown in FIG.

Finally, a fourth embodiment of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS.
FIG. 22 is a diagram illustrating an example of an application software execution screen according to the fourth embodiment.
Compared with the application software 200 (see FIG. 5) of the first embodiment described above, a mode switching radio button 214 is added. Others are the same as in the first embodiment.

FIG. 23 is a functional block diagram of a microscope photographing apparatus and a PC to which the fourth embodiment of the present invention is applied.
Compared with FIG. 2 described as the first embodiment described above, the LED drive pulse generator 21 is omitted, and is changed to a CCD drive pulse generator 21_1. The CPU 16 and the LED lighting unit 1 are connected via a DA converter (not shown) in the CPU 16. Therefore, the light quantity value from the dimming setting unit 13 is converted into an analog voltage value in the CPU 16 and output to the LED lighting unit 1. Therefore, unlike the first embodiment, the amount of light of the LED illumination unit 1 can be controlled by current control asynchronously with the driving of the CCD 8. Since the LED light quantity is controlled by current control, a change in color temperature occurs, but the LED drive pulse generator 21 is omitted to reduce the circuit scale. Other configurations are the same as those of the first embodiment.

  In FIG. 22, a mode switching radio button 214 is used to switch the setting of the brightness control method of the image displayed on the live image 202. When “monitor observation” is selected, brightness control optimal for live image observation on the monitor is performed. Thus, when “Still image acquisition” is selected, brightness control is optimal for still image shooting. In FIG. 22, “monitor observation” is selected. The brightness control in this case is the same as that in the first embodiment. On the other hand, the brightness setting when “Still image acquisition” is selected is as follows.

  That is, in response to the mode switching radio button 214, the mode switching command “SetLightMode n” is transmitted from the PC 103 to the DC-1. When n = 0, “monitor observation” is selected, and when n = 1, “still image acquisition” is selected. In this “still image acquisition”, the amount of light that can realize a color temperature of 5500K optimum for still image shooting is fixed to 100 in brightness control. Exposure control and gain control are the same as those in the first embodiment.

The exposure control range is 1/100 second to 1/10 second in the first embodiment, but may be 1/100 second to 8 seconds in the present embodiment.
In this way, observation that does not cause any problem even if the color temperature changes, such as focusing on the subject, is performed by “monitor observation” where the frame rate is given priority. “Still image acquisition” mode can be selected. Therefore, since the LED driving pulse generator 21 is omitted, the apparatus can be reduced in size and cost. Moreover, since the brightness control specialized for the observation method is possible by mode switching, the observation performance is improved.

  Also, the mode switching radio button 214 is abolished, and when the observer presses the shooting button, the mode is switched from “monitor observation” to “still image acquisition” mode, and automatically switches to “monitor observation” mode when shooting is completed. You may make it switch automatically. In this case, even if the observer does not change the mode, the “Still Image Acquisition” mode suitable for shooting is set during shooting, and the “Monitor Observation” mode suitable for live image observation is automatically switched to the observation mode. Operability is improved.

  As described above, the first to fourth embodiments to which the present invention is applied have been described, but the functions of the microscope photographing apparatus, the brightness adjustment method, and the brightness adjustment program to which the present invention is applied are described. As long as it is executed, the present invention is not limited to the above-described embodiment, and various configurations or shapes can be taken without departing from the gist of the present invention.

For example, in each of the above-described embodiments, brightness control is performed first by controlling the amount of light, then by controlling the exposure time, and finally by controlling the gain. However, this may be changed as follows. Good.
That is, as shown in FIG. 24, the light amount control and the exposure control may be alternately performed in the process of performing the light amount control stepwise. The gain is always fixed at 1 time. Further, as shown in FIG. 25, the light amount control step may be fine for a dark light amount and rough for a bright light amount.

  With such comprehensive control of the light amount and the exposure time, it is possible to improve the brightness accuracy such that the brightness control below the minimum resolution of the light amount control is supplemented by the exposure control.

It is a figure for demonstrating the outline of the 1st Embodiment of this invention. 1 is a functional block diagram of a microscope photographing apparatus and a PC to which a first embodiment of the present invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the value which the light control setting 13 sets, and the light quantity on CCD. It is a figure which shows the luminance average value input into the light control setting part 13, and the light quantity increase / decrease value with respect to it. FIG. 6 is a diagram (part 1) illustrating an example of an application software execution screen according to the first embodiment; It is FIG. (2) which shows the example of an execution screen of the application software in 1st Embodiment. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the brightness adjustment process to which the 1st Embodiment of this invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the relationship between an average luminance value, a light quantity, exposure time, and a gain. It is a functional block diagram of a microscope photographing apparatus to which the present invention is applied. It is a flowchart which shows the flow of the brightness adjustment process to which this invention is applied. It is a figure which shows the example of an execution screen of the application software in 2nd Embodiment. 6 is a diagram illustrating m, n, and p values for each position of a brightness setting bar 206. FIG. It is a figure for demonstrating the outline of the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a functional block diagram of the microscope imaging device and PC which applied the 3rd Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the state in which the slide glass was mounted on the stage as a sample. It is a figure which shows the state in which the chalet was mounted on the stage as a sample. FIG. 6 is a diagram (No. 1) for explaining light amount control by turning off a specimen detection switch; FIG. 6 is a diagram (No. 2) for explaining light amount control by turning off the specimen detection switch; It is a figure which shows the example of an execution screen of application software in case an observer can change the brightness control method. It is a figure which shows the relationship between the light quantity at the time of providing the observation sample transmittance | permeability setting radio button 213, exposure time, a gain, and an average luminance value. It is a flowchart for demonstrating brightness control switching. It is a figure which shows the example of an execution screen of the application software in 4th Embodiment. It is a functional block diagram of the microscope imaging device and PC which applied the 4th Embodiment of this invention. It is a figure which shows the example which performs light quantity control and exposure control alternately in the process of performing light quantity control in steps. It is a figure which shows the example which makes the step of light quantity control fine with a dark light quantity, and rough with a bright light quantity.

Explanation of symbols

1 LED lighting unit 2 LED
3 Collector lens 4 Stage 5 Subject 6 Objective lens 7 Imaging lens 8 CCD
DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 10 Zoom mechanism 11 Zoom volume 12 Zoom lens group 13 Light control setting part 16 CPU
17 AD converter 18 Specimen detection switch 21 LED drive pulse generator 101 Microscope photographing device 102 Communication control system 103 Personal computer (PC)
104 Monitor 105 Communication Cable 106 PC-Communication Control System 107 Memory (RAM)
108 Hard disk (HD)
109 Monitor control system 110 PC-CPU
200 Application Software 201 Digital Microscope Type Field 202 Live Image 203 Shooting Button 204 Record Button 206 Brightness Setting Bar 208 Exit Button 209 Screen Switch Button 210 Captured Image 212 Automatic Brightness Adjustment Setting Radio Button 213 Observation Sample Transparency Setting Radio Button 214 Mode Switch radio button 900 Microscope photographing device 910 Microscope 920 Personal computer 921 Display device 922 Recording device 930 Imaging device 931 Display device 932 Recording device 940 Density information acquisition means 950 Density information determination means 960 Light quantity control means 970 Exposure control means 980 Amplification rate control means

Claims (10)

In a microscope photographing apparatus having a photographing apparatus for photographing an observation image of a subject by a microscope,
An image sensor for projecting the subject illuminated by a light source;
And based on the reflected light or transmitted light of light irradiated to the object, and the shading information acquisition means for acquiring a luminance value of the subject,
Light / dark information determining means for determining whether or not the brightness value acquired by the light / dark information acquiring means is within an appropriate brightness range;
A light amount control means for controlling the light amount of the light source that irradiates the subject based on the result determined by the density information determination means;
When the light intensity of the light source controlled by the light intensity control means reaches the maximum light quantity of the microscope when the brightness value determined by the density information determination means is out of the range and reflected by the subject or transmitted Exposure control means for controlling an exposure time for exposing light to the image sensor ;
A microscope photographing apparatus comprising: If the exposure time is controlled by the exposure control means is longer than 1 second 10 minutes, from the sensitivity or the object relative to prior Symbol optical signal in converting an optical signal from the object into an electrical signal by the imaging device microscope imaging apparatus according to claim 1, characterized by further comprising a gain control means to control the amplification factor of the electrical signal for converting the optical signal by the imaging device. The microscope photographing apparatus according to claim 1 or 2 , wherein the appropriate brightness range for determination by the grayscale information determination unit can be arbitrarily set. The amount range of the amount of light controlled by the control means, the microscope imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 3, characterized in that that can be set arbitrarily. When the speculum method using the microscope is an epi-illumination method such as epi-illumination field method, epi-illumination dark-field method, epi-illumination differential interference micro-scopy method, epi-illumination fluorescence micro-scopy method, the light amount control means controls The range of the light amount is from the minimum light amount to the maximum light amount of the microscope,
Speculum method by the microscope, transmission bright-field microscopy method, transmission phase difference microscopy, transmission differential interference microscopy, transmission dark-field microscopy, in the case of the transmission speculum method transmitting polarization microscopy method, The microscope photographing apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein a range of light quantity controlled by the light quantity control means is a part from a minimum light quantity to a maximum light quantity of the microscope. Output hand stage aforementioned shading information acquired by the shading information acquisition means, whether to output a monitor observation mode to be displayed on the display device, and outputting the still image acquisition mode to be stored in the recording device as a still image
Further comprising a,
When the output means is a still image acquisition mode, the light quantity control means is a microscope imaging apparatus according to any one of claims 1 to 5, characterized in that to control the amount of light to be constant. A brightness adjustment method executed by a computer having a photographing device for photographing an observation image of a subject by a microscope,
Projecting the subject illuminated by a light source onto an image sensor;
And based on the reflected light or transmitted light of light irradiated to the object, obtains the luminance value of the subject,
Determining whether or not the acquired luminance value is within an appropriate brightness range;
Based on the determined result, the light amount of the light source that irradiates the subject is controlled,
When the luminance value is out of the range and the light amount of the controlled light source reaches the maximum light amount of the microscope, an exposure time for exposing reflected light or transmitted light from the subject to the image sensor is controlled. The brightness adjustment method characterized by this. If the controlled exposure time is longer than 1 second 10 minutes, the optical signal from the sensitivity or the object relative to prior Symbol optical signal in converting an optical signal from the object into an electrical signal by the imaging device The brightness adjustment method according to claim 7, wherein an amplification factor of the electric signal converted by the image sensor is controlled. For a computer having a photographing device for photographing an observation image of a subject by a microscope,
Projecting the subject illuminated by a light source onto an image sensor;
The procedure in based on the reflected light or transmitted light of the light, to obtain the luminance value of the subject which is irradiated to the object,
A procedure for determining whether or not the brightness value acquired by the procedure for acquiring the brightness value is within an appropriate brightness range;
A procedure for controlling the amount of light of the light source that irradiates the subject based on the result determined by the procedure for determining the luminance value ;
An exposure time for exposing reflected light or transmitted light from the subject to the imaging device when the light intensity controlled by the procedure for controlling the light quantity reaches the maximum light quantity of the microscope when the luminance value is outside the range. The procedure to control,
Brightness adjustment program to execute. If the exposure time is controlled by the procedure of controlling the exposure time is longer than 1 second 10 minutes, the sensitivity or the relative front Stories optical signal in converting an optical signal from the object into an electrical signal by the imaging device procedures for controlling the amplification factor of the electrical signal for converting an optical signal from a subject by the imaging device
The brightness adjustment program according to claim 9, further comprising:

Images