JPH1032743A - Image adding device - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To provide an image adding device capable of obtaining an added image satisfactory in quality and exactly performing the adding processing of plural images without being affected by shaking. SOLUTION: Even when the image data fetched from a television camera 4 are shaken by moving a stage 2 in the case of performing adding processing to respective images at plural focal points, a shake detecting part 12 consisting of an optical encoder detects the shaking amount of the stage 2 and an image blur correcting amount calculating part 14 calculates an image blur correcting amount from the shaking amount detected by this shake detecting part 12 and objective lens information read by an objective lens information reading part 13. Corresponding to this result, a memory controller 15 controls the read address of a memory 7 for addition, under this address control, the image data fetched from the television camera 4 are added to the image data read out of the memory 7 for addition and further, these added image data are written in the memory 7 for addition.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to an image adding apparatus for adding images at a plurality of focal points of an image observed by a microscope.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Conventionally, an image forming optical system used in an optical microscope should employ an optical element having a large aperture in order to capture an image having excellent optical resolution and high brightness. It has been known. Also,
It is also known that an imaging optical element typified by a lens used in such an imaging optical system has a smaller depth of focus as its aperture becomes larger.

However, in the field of imaging equipment such as a microscope, a camera, and an endoscope using such an imaging optical system, it is of course desirable that the obtained image has excellent resolution and brightness. However, at the same time, it is strongly required that the image has a large depth of focus.

[0004] This means that, for example, when a specimen having a step, for example, a pattern of a semiconductor wafer, a biological specimen having irregularities, an LCD panel inspection, and the like are handled in a specimen inspection observation using an optical microscope, a conventional image with a small depth of focus is obtained. In this case, the blurred image is mixed in the observation image, which may hinder the inspection process.

[0005] In particular, when observing a sample having a step with a microscope, the in-focus position differs depending on the position of the sample. Therefore, the observation image is clearly focused upon the distance between the stage and the objective lens. There will be a part that looks like and a part that looks out of focus and blurry.

Therefore, there is known a method of observing a sample having such a step by increasing the depth of focus for observation. In this method, first, the stage on which the sample is placed is moved to Z
A plurality of images are captured while moving in the direction, that is, in the direction of the optical axis of the objective lens, and the images are added. In this way, information of an image focused on all positions on the sample surface having a step and image information out of focus can be obtained. In order to remove a blurred image, image processing is performed on the added image. To perform a recovery process,
The goal is to get an image that is in focus on any surface.

On the other hand, the phenomenon that it is difficult to view an observed image as a blurred image is sometimes caused by an image blur. Such an image blurred image is obtained by observing a sample with a microscope while magnifying the sample, so that even a slight shake of the stage is magnified on the CCD surface through the objective lens, and a large blur occurs in the image observed by the TV camera. .

[0008] Such a phenomenon that it becomes difficult to see due to the fluctuation of the observed image occurs not only in the observation using a microscope, but also when the observation is performed through a general TV camera. Therefore, conventionally, in order to prevent such image blur, a measure has been taken by detecting a blur amount by the following method.

(A) The angular velocity sensor detects the X direction and the Y direction.
Detects the amount of direction blur. (B) A motion vector is obtained by image processing (pattern matching) and the amount of image blur is detected. As described above, conventionally, as a method of removing a blurred image of an image observed by a microscope, a method of increasing the depth of focus, a method of preventing image blur, and the like have been adopted.

[0010]

However, even if such a method is employed, there are still the following problems.
That is, in the sample inspection using a microscope, when the stage is moved in the Z direction, the stage is moved along with the XY movement.
In order to cause lateral sway or to inspect multiple positions,
There is a phenomenon that the stage vibrates when moving from the current inspection position to the next inspection position. In addition, since the microscope observes the sample while enlarging it, even a slight shake of the stage is enlarged on the CCD surface through the objective lens, and a large image blur occurs in the image observed by the TV camera.

As a result, when images of a plurality of focal planes when the stage is moved in the Z direction are captured and these images are added, when the images are captured, vibrations in the stages X and Y exist, respectively. When the captured images are added and these captured images are added, a number of image-blurred images are superimposed to form an image like a so-called camera shake photograph. As the number of added images increases, the tendency of the image blur to become a blurred photograph becomes stronger, and the image quality deteriorates remarkably. Even if an attempt is made to recover the image, a good image cannot be obtained. For this reason, it is necessary to remove image blur due to slight stage position blur in pixel units.

FIG. 8 specifically shows the state of image blurring, in which a 100 × objective lens 101 is used for a microscope and a 2/3 inch CCD camera 102 is used as an image pickup means for observation images. , Generally this size CC
The D camera 102 recognizes about 14 μm × 14 μm as one pixel on the CCD surface. Here, stage 103
If the observation point of the sample 104 is displaced by 1 μm due to the vibration, the displacement is 1 μm × 100 times and 100 μm on the CCD surface.
From 14 μm, it is almost 7 pixels.

This means that when images of a plurality of focal planes are added, an image greatly shaken in the X and Y directions is added, which is completely different from an actual image. For example, as shown in FIG. 9A, when three images are captured from three focus positions by moving the stage 103 in the Z direction, and when the stage 103 is not blurred,
Images are captured at each position of Za, Zb, and Zc, and these added images are as shown in FIG.

However, when vibrations in the X and Y directions are present on the stage 103, each image is captured in the state shown in FIGS. In other words, FIG. 10A shows a state in which the first image is captured. In this case, the image is directly captured in the memory. However, since the second and subsequent sheets take in images while the stage 103 shakes in the X and Y directions, these added images are as shown in FIGS. 3B and 3C. Stage 3 is 1 μm
When the image is blurred, the image blur is as large as 7 pixels.
This is completely different from the original added image shown in FIG.

From this, it is conceivable that the image blur on the CCD surface of the CCD camera 102 is reduced to one pixel or less in any case by minimizing the amount of blur of the stage 103. 14 μm /
It is necessary to detect with an accuracy of 100 times = 0.14 μm,
The angular velocity sensor is not suitable for image blur detection that satisfies such accuracy, and cannot respond to such high-precision detection as a microscope image.

In addition, regarding blur detection by image processing, while moving the stage in the Z direction, images of a plurality of focal planes are added, and a recovery process is performed on the added image to obtain a final image having a deep depth of focus. 11A, the image pattern of the figure p1 set for pattern matching at the image capturing start position Zs as shown in FIG.
The contrast decreases due to the movement of the focal point with the movement in the direction, and the image pattern that can be detected in FIG. 4B is not detected because the figure p1 is blurred in the image pattern in FIG. When the stage movement further proceeds beyond the depth of focus, the figure p1 cannot be detected at all as shown in FIG. It is to be noted that the figure p2, which was not visible at the image capturing start position Zs, is shown as a substitute for the figure p1 of the image pattern as the stage moves.

In this manner, the range in which image blur can be detected using pattern matching is limited to the case where the stage moves within the range of the depth of focus. Could not.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention has been made in view of the above circumstances, and provides an image adding apparatus capable of accurately performing addition processing of a plurality of images without being affected by blurring and obtaining a high-quality added image. The purpose is to:

[0019]

According to the first aspect of the present invention,
In an image adding apparatus for adding images at a plurality of focal points, an image data capturing means for capturing image data at the focal point, a storage means for storing image data captured by the image data capturing means, A blur amount detecting means for detecting a blur amount of the image data captured by the image data capturing means due to movement, and an address control means for controlling a write / read address of the storage means based on the blur amount detected by the blur amount detecting means. Control means for adding image data captured by the image data capturing means to image data read from the storage means by the address control of the address control means, and writing the added image data to the storage means It consists of:

According to a second aspect of the present invention, in the first aspect, the image data capturing means captures image data of an observation image of a sample on a stage via an objective lens, and the blur amount detecting means includes The amount of shake of the stage due to movement of the objective lens in the optical axis direction of the stage is detected, and the address control means writes the data in the storage means based on the shake amount detected by the shake amount detection means and further information on the objective lens. The read address is controlled.

According to a third aspect of the present invention, in the second aspect, the shake amount detecting means comprises an optical encoder provided on the stage. As a result, according to the first aspect of the present invention, when the image at the plurality of focal points is added, even when the image data captured by the image data capturing unit is blurred, the image data is adjusted according to the blur amount at this time. Since the captured image data is added to the image data from the storage unit in which the read address is controlled, accurate image addition can be performed without being affected by the blur of the captured image. Obtainable.

According to the second aspect of the invention, since the amount of movement of the stage and the information on the objective lens are added to the control of the address of the storage means, a high-precision shake corresponding to the magnification of the objective lens is provided. Volume control becomes possible. Furthermore, according to the third aspect of the present invention, since the optical encoder is used for detecting the blur amount, it is possible to realize the blur amount detection with higher accuracy.

[0023]

Embodiments of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. (First Embodiment) FIG. 1 shows a schematic configuration of a microscope image adding apparatus to which the present invention is applied.

In FIG. 1, reference numeral 1 denotes an optical microscope main body, which has a stage 2 for mounting a sample (not shown), an objective lens 3, and a television camera 4 for microscope observation. The obtained observation image of the sample on the stage 2 is taken by the television camera 4.

Reference numeral 20 denotes an image adding apparatus main body, in which the A / D converter 5 is connected to the television camera 4. The A / D converter 5 converts a video signal from the television camera 4 into a digital signal.

An adder 6, an image memory 7, a divider 8, a spatial filter 9, an image memory 10, and a D / A converter 11 are connected to the A / D converter 5 in this order.
The display unit 19 is connected to the converter 11.

Here, the adder 6 adds the image input from the television camera 4 and the image stored in the memory image 7. The image memory 7 stores the result added by the adder 6. Further, the divider 8 divides the added image stored in the image memory 7 by the number of added images, and
This is for returning the image to the number of sheets. Spatial filter 9
Is for performing a recovery process. Image memory 10
Stores the display image data subjected to the recovery processing. The D / A converter 11 converts the display image data read from the image memory 10 into analog data, and displays the converted image data on the display unit 19.

On the other hand, a shake detector 12 composed of an optical encoder is provided on the stage 2 of the apparatus main body 20, and an objective lens information reader 13 is provided corresponding to the objective lens 3. Here, the shake detecting unit 12 is provided fixed to the stage 2 of the microscope main body 1 and detects the amount of shake of the stage 2 in the X and Y directions. The objective lens information reading unit 13 reads the magnification of the objective lens 3 currently used.

An image blur correction amount calculator 14 is connected to the blur detector 12, and a memory controller 15 is connected to the image blur correction amount calculator 14. Image blur correction amount calculation unit 1
Numeral 4 is for calculating the number of correction pixels based on the amount of blur detected by the optical encoder of the blur detection unit 12 and the objective lens information of the objective lens information reading unit 13. The memory controller 15 controls writing and reading addresses to and from the image addition memory 7 and the image display memory 10 based on the image blur correction amount calculated by the image blur correction amount calculation unit 14.

A CPU 16 is connected to the adder 6, the divider 8, the spatial filter 9, the blur detector 12, the objective lens information reader 13, and the image blur correction amount calculator 14, and the CPU 16 performs image processing. , And controls the entire image blur correction and drive control.
The CPU 16 is connected to a stage driving unit 17 for driving the stage 2 in the Z direction, that is, the optical axis direction of the objective lens 3, and an operation unit 18 for instructing dynamic focus and the like.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic configuration of an optical encoder of the shake detecting section 12. In this case, the stage 2 of the microscope main body 1 is provided with a first stage 22 on a stage table 21 so as to be movable only in the X direction, and a second stage on the first stage 22 so as to be movable only in the Y direction. 23, the optical encoder 12 for X-direction shake detection.
Reference numeral 1 denotes a photodetector 1211 provided on a stage 21 and a linear scale 1212 provided on a first stage 22. On the other hand, an optical encoder 122 for detecting a Y-direction
The stage 22 is provided with a photodetector 1221, and the second stage 23 is provided with a linear scale 1222.

In this way, when the stage 2 moves in the Z direction, the first and second stages 22 and 23
Since both of them move together with the stage table 21, the photodetector 12 of the optical encoder 121 for X-direction shake detection
11 and the linear scale 1212 and the photodetector 122 of the optical encoder 122
1 and the linear scale 1222, the relative position does not change. However, for the movement in the X direction, the first stage 22 moves with respect to the stage table 21 and the photodetector of the optical encoder 121 for X-direction shake detection. A change occurs in the relative position between the linear scale 1211 and the linear scale 1212, and in the movement in the Y direction, the second stage 23 moves with respect to the first stage 22, and the optical encoder 122 for blur detection in the Y direction Since the relative position between the photodetector 1221 and the linear scale 1222 changes, the amount of shake of the stage 2 in the X and Y directions can be detected.

In this case, the optical encoder 12
As shown in FIG. 3A, outputs 1 and 122 are obtained from two systems of A-phase and B-phase from the photodetectors 1211 and 1221, respectively. Since the outputs of these two systems are sine waves with a phase shift of 90 degrees, the use of these two outputs makes it possible to detect the amount of shake as an angle as shown in FIG. 3B.

Here, the optical encoders 121 and 122
As for the resolution, one pitch of the linear scale is 8μ.
m, one cycle can be divided into 80 from the output from the photodetector, and 8 μm ÷ 80 = 0.1 μm, and detection with an accuracy of 0.1 μm is possible. From this, the required accuracy of the blur correction of the microscope stage, 0.
A blur detection accuracy of 14 μm or less can be realized.

Next, the operation of the embodiment configured as described above will be described with reference to the flowchart shown in FIG. First,
In step 401, the measurement image position is moved to the start position, and this position is set as a reference position. Next, step 402
Then, the operation unit 18 waits until the button for starting the image addition process is pressed. Then, when the button is pressed, in step 403, the required number of pulses and the signal of the moving direction are input to the pulse motor by the motor driving unit 17, and the motor is moved in the Z direction to the image capturing start position. Step 4
In step 04, when the stage is moved in the Z direction by a predetermined distance, when the target position is reached, an image of the sample on the stage 2 is captured by the television camera 4.

In this image pickup, the blur amount of the stage 2 is also detected at the same time, and image blur correction is performed. Specifically, first, the falling amount of the vertical synchronization signal of the first frame of the image is used as a trigger to detect the amount of shake of the stage 2 by the optical encoder of the shake detection unit 12.

Next, at step 405, the magnification of the objective lens 3 is read by the objective lens information acquisition unit 13, and
The image blur correction amount calculation unit 14 gives the image blur correction amount calculation unit 14 how much the image blur is based on the blur amount of the stage 2 from the blur detection unit 12 in consideration of the magnification of the objective lens 3. Calculate how many pixels are out of line.

Then, the calculation result is sent to the memory controller 15, and in step 406, the memory controller 15 controls the read and write addresses of the addition memory 7. That is, the memory controller 15
Then, the read and write timings are controlled so that the image blur of the image captured by the television camera 4 is canceled by the addition image data from the addition memory 7.

Next, the addition data read at this timing (step 407) is added to the data captured by the camera 4 by the adder 6 in step 408, and the addition result is written by the memory controller 15 The address is stored again in the controlled addition memory 7 (step 409). In this case, the data from the television camera 4 is converted into digital data by the A / D converter 5 at a predetermined clock cycle.

Such an operation is repeated by the number of images to be added. In step 410, the stage 2 is moved to the next image capturing position in step 411 until completion of the addition is determined. Returning to 404, the same operation as described above is repeated. And step 410
When the image addition is completed, a restoration process using the spatial filter 9 is performed.

In this case, in step 412, the memory controller 15 corrects the image blur amount obtained by the image blur correction amount calculator 14 and performs the following recovery processing while controlling the writing and reading of the display memory 10. Run.

In this case, first, the addition image data read from the addition memory 7 is given to the divider 8. The divider 8 divides the added image data by the number of added images to return the image data to one image data. The image data is restored by the spatial filter 9 to emphasize an edge portion having a high frequency component. Only the in-focus image is restored, and this restored image is
At step 414, the data is written to the display memory 10. Then, in step 415, only the valid data area of the display image data in the display memory 10 is read out, and
After the analog conversion by the / A converter 111, in step 416, the image is displayed on the display unit 19 as the restored sample observation image.

FIG. 5 illustrates the timing of image addition by the memory controller 15. Now, assuming that FIG. 7A is the added image data stored in the addition memory 7 and FIG. 7B is the input image data with image blur input from the TV camera 4, In the region (xts, yts) and (xte, yte) indicated by broken lines in FIG.
From the addition memory 7, (xms,
(ms), (xme, yme) are designated, the readout area of the added image data from the addition memory 7 is as shown in FIG. 3C, and the addition area of the input image data is as shown in FIG. Then, these areas are added by the adder 6 to generate an addition result shown in FIG. 9E, which is stored in the addition memory 7 again to correct the image blur. Become.

In this case, by such image blur correction,
The effective pixel period decreases. This means that, since the effective pixel period of the camera input image is fixed, the finally obtained display image is reduced by the blur correction.

For example, in the case of 640 effective pixels in the horizontal direction and 480 effective lines in the NTSC system, in a display having a display size of 640 × 400, horizontal blur directly affects the effective image area and the display area. Will decrease. However, the vertical blur is 480-40.
Since 0 = 80 lines are left, in this range, a decrease in the number of effective lines due to blur correction is absorbed, and 400 lines can be displayed. Further, when the image blur is further increased, it is necessary to use a television system having a sufficiently long effective pixel period so as to absorb the decrease in the effective pixels and the effective lines. For image blur that cannot be corrected even by using such a method, for example, image blur that is about half of the entire screen after processing, it is sufficient to perform control such as reacquiring the image again. A necessary effective image area can be secured.

Therefore, in this way, when the images at the plurality of focal points are added, even if the image data captured by the television camera 4 may be blurred due to the movement of the stage 2, 2 is detected by a shake detection unit 12 composed of an optical encoder, and the image blur correction amount calculation unit 14 calculates an image based on the shake amount detected by the shake detection unit 12 and the objective lens information of the objective lens information reading unit 13. The blur correction amount is calculated, and the read address of the addition memory 7 is controlled by the memory controller 15 in accordance with the calculation result, and the image data read from the addition memory 7 by the address control is stored in the image data captured by the television camera 4. The data is added, and the added image data is further added to an addition memory 7.
Therefore, accurate image addition can be performed without being affected by blurring of an image taken in from the television camera 4, and a high-quality added image can be obtained.

In the first embodiment, a method of controlling writing and reading addresses in the addition memory 7 and the display memory 10 is used to correct image blur. However, the control is simplified. For this purpose, a method may be used in which the image addition is performed after the vibration of the stage 2 has subsided.

A television camera 4 used for sample observation
May be a method such as PAL, SECAM, or Hi-Vision in addition to the NTSC method. However, as shown in FIG. 5, writing and reading to and from a memory are adjusted by controlling the effective pixel period of a captured image. Therefore, as the number of effective pixels increases, the number of effective pixels associated with image blur correction decreases and the screen size can be increased. There is no particular limitation on the pixel size of the CCD if the accuracy of reading the blur amount is increased. (Second Embodiment) FIG. 6 shows a schematic configuration of a scanning confocal microscope to which the present invention is applied.

In the figure, reference numeral 31 denotes a scanning confocal microscope main body, which comprises a laser light source 32, a photodetector 33, a lens 34, a pinhole plate 35, and a mirror 3.
6, a half mirror 37, an XY direction scanning mechanism 38, an objective lens 39, an observation sample 40, a stage 49 on which the sample 40 is mounted, and a Z direction scanning mechanism 48.

An image processing section 41 is connected to the microscope main body 31. The image processing unit 41 includes a first memory 4
2, a second memory 43, an operation memory 44, and a memory controller 45 for controlling writing and reading addresses of these memories.

Further, in addition to the microscope main body 31 and the image processing section 41, the CPU 46 and the scanning drive control circuit 4
7, a Z-direction scanning mechanism 48, a blur detection unit 50, an image blur correction amount calculation unit 51, an objective lens information reading unit 52, and an image display unit 53.

Here, the laser light source 32 is a laser light source for generating laser light as spot light for scanning the surface of the sample 40, and the mirror 36 is a laser light source 32
Is a reflecting mirror for guiding the laser light from the lens to the objective lens 39. The half mirror 47 is a mirror for guiding the reflected light from the objective lens 39 to a detection system. The lens 34 is a lens for condensing the reflected light from the sample 40 obtained through the half mirror 37, and the pinhole plate 35 has a pinhole of a required diameter. The pinhole is located at the focal position of the lens 34 on the front side of the surface. The photodetector 33 is a photodetector that converts light obtained through the pinhole into an electric signal corresponding to the light amount.

On the other hand, the scanning drive control circuit 47 controls the stage 49 in the X and Y directions, and the XY direction scanning mechanism 38 controls the X-axis and Y-axis scanning galvanomirrors by the scanning drive control circuit 47. By shaking in the X-axis direction and the Y-axis direction, the optical path of
I try to swing in the direction. Z-direction scanning mechanism 48
Moves the objective lens 39 in the Z direction, that is, the objective lens 39
This is a mechanism for driving in the optical axis direction. The objective lens information reading unit 52 reads the magnification of the objective lens 39 and obtains a coefficient for calculating the image blur correction amount. The blur detector 50 detects the amount of blur of the objective lens 39, and the image blur correction amount calculator 51 calculates the amount of blur of the objective lens obtained by the objective lens information reader 52 and the amount of blur obtained by the blur detector. The number of pixels and the number of lines corresponding to the movement of the objective lens 39 is calculated from the amount. The memory controller 45 uses the output of the image blur correction amount calculation unit 51,
The first memory 42 and the second memory 42 cancel the image blur.
Of the memory 43 and the arithmetic memory 44 are controlled. The image display unit 53 includes the image processing circuit 4
The processing result of step 1 is displayed.

However, in the second embodiment,
The input image from the sample 40 is captured while moving the stage 49 in the Z direction. At the time of capturing the image, the blur detection unit 50 detects the blur amount of the stage 49 before generating an image sampling pulse. The image blur correction amount is calculated by the image blur correction amount calculation unit 51 using the objective lens information obtained by the lens information reading unit 52, and the first memory 42 and the second memory 42 are calculated by the memory controller 45 based on the correction amount. An address for writing and reading to and from the memory 43 and the arithmetic memory 44 is controlled.

As a result, the input image can be captured with its shake in the X and Y directions corrected. Further, by repeating the capture of the input image while moving the stage 49 in the Z direction, the image is not blurred in the X and Y directions.
A two-dimensional image is obtained.

In the second embodiment, since the scanning confocal microscope is used, an image at a certain Z position is captured by scanning the laser beam in the X and Y directions. Due to the influence of the shake of the stage 49 at the time of capturing, there is a possibility that data of different X and Y coordinates may be captured without scanning the expected position.

That is, in the scanning of the laser beam in the X and Y directions shown in FIG. 7, the laser beam starting from the scanning start position moves along the scanning line shown by the solid line in the drawing, and the reflected light is detected. However, if the stage is shaken during this scanning, the image may not pass on a predetermined scanning line, and the obtained image may be different from the originally desired image.

Among such blurs, those in a frequency band where the blur of each line scan can be ignored, that is, each line can be scanned almost without blur, but when a plurality of lines are scanned, the blur occurs. (For example, the scanning of the 200th line from the scanning start position is blurred by one pixel due to the blurring in the line scanning direction (X direction) by several pixels and by several lines in the scanning movement direction (Y direction)). In the case where the 199th line is scanned with a deviation and the start position of the 200th line is shifted in the scanning direction of one pixel line, the following blur correction can be performed.

In order to perform such a shake correction, the shake may be detected in a portion corresponding to a blanking period in TV scanning. In this case, when the stage is shaken in the line scanning direction (X direction) due to the shake, it can be corrected by controlling the writing and reading addresses of the image. On the other hand, in the case of blur in the line scanning direction (X direction) and the vertical direction, the direction of the blur is known. In the case of the direction opposite to the scanning movement direction, the image at that position has already been captured. In the case of, the writing to the memory is not performed, and in the case of the same direction as the scanning movement direction, the middle is lost, so that it is necessary to take the line again or stop the image capturing. Become.

[0060]

As described above, according to the present invention, when the images at a plurality of focal points are added, even if the image data captured by the image data capturing means is blurred, the blur amount at this time can be improved. In this case, the captured image data is added to the image data from the storage unit whose read address is controlled in accordance with the above, so that accurate image addition can be performed without being affected by the blurring of the captured image. An additive image can be obtained. In addition, since information on the objective lens is added to the amount of movement of the stage in controlling the address of the storage means, it is possible to control the amount of movement with high precision in accordance with the magnification of the objective lens.
Further, since the optical encoder is used for detecting the blur amount, it is possible to realize a more accurate blur amount detection.

[Brief description of the drawings]

FIG. 1 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of an optical encoder used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 3 is a diagram showing output waveforms of an optical encoder used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 4 is a flowchart for explaining the operation of the first embodiment.

FIG. 5 is a diagram for explaining image addition timing by a memory controller used in the first embodiment.

FIG. 6 is a diagram showing a schematic configuration of a second embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a diagram illustrating a scanning direction of laser light for explaining a second embodiment.

FIG. 8 is a diagram illustrating a state of image blur.

FIG. 9 is a diagram for explaining an addition state of a plurality of focused images.

FIG. 10 is a diagram for explaining an addition state of a plurality of focused images.

FIG. 11 is a view for explaining image blur detection by pattern matching.

[Explanation of symbols]

 DESCRIPTION OF SYMBOLS 1 ... Optical microscope main body, 2 ... Stage, 21 ... Stage base, 22 ... 1st stage, 23 ... 2nd stage, 3 ... Objective lens, 4 ... TV camera, 5 ... A / D converter, 6 ... Addition 7: Image memory, 8: Divider, 9: Spatial filter, 10: Image memory, 11: D / A converter, 12: Blur detector, 121, 122: Optical encoder, 13: Object lens information reading Unit 14 image blur correction amount calculation unit 15 memory controller 16 CPU stage driving unit 18 operation unit 19 display unit 20 image adding device body 31 scanning scanning confocal microscope 32, laser light source, 33, photodetector, 34, lens, 35, pinhole plate, 36, mirror, 37, half mirror, 38, XY scanning mechanism, 39, objective lens, 0: sample, 41: image processing unit, 42: first memory, 43: second memory, 44: arithmetic memory, 45: memory controller, 46: CPU, 47: scanning drive control circuit, 48: scanning in Z direction 49, a stage, 50, a blur detection section, 51, an image blur correction amount calculation section, 52, an objective lens information reading section, 53, an image display section.

Claims (3)

[Claims] 1. An image adding apparatus for adding images at a plurality of focal points, comprising: image data capturing means for capturing image data of a focused image; and storage means for storing image data captured by the image data capturing means. A blur amount detecting means for detecting a blur amount of the image data captured by the image data capturing means due to the movement to the focal point; and a writing / reading address of the storage means based on the blur amount detected by the blur amount detecting means. Address control means for controlling, and adding the image data fetched by the image data fetch means to the image data read from the storage means by the address control of the address control means, and storing the added image data in the storage section Control means for writing to the means. Summing device. 2. The image data capturing means captures image data of an observation image of a sample on a stage via an objective lens, and the blur amount detecting means detects a movement of the objective lens in an optical axis direction of the stage. The blur amount of the stage is detected, and the address control means controls the writing and reading addresses of the storage means based on the blur amount detected by the blur amount detecting means and information on the objective lens. Item 2. The image adding device according to Item 1. 3. An image adding apparatus according to claim 2, wherein said blur amount detecting means comprises an optical encoder provided on said stage.