KR102010819B1 - Apparatus for capturing images of blood cell and image analyzer with the same - Google Patents

Abstract

A blood cell image capturing apparatus and an image analyzer to which the blood cell image capturing apparatus is applied, comprising: a camera unit for capturing an entire region of a blood smeared slide and capturing a blood cell image; an illumination unit for illuminating and illuminating the slide; And a control unit for controlling the driving of the device, wherein the camera unit includes a plurality of camera modules for capturing the entire area of the slide, thereby improving blood cell image capturing speed and image quality, and miniaturizing and reducing weight. Mobility and portability can be increased.

Description

Blood cell image capturing device and image analyzer applied thereto {APPARATUS FOR CAPTURING IMAGES OF BLOOD CELL AND IMAGE ANALYZER WITH THE SAME}

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a blood cell image pickup device and an image analyzer to which it is applied, and more particularly, to a blood cell image pickup device for imaging a blood cell contained in a blood sample smeared with blood and an image analyzer to which the blood cell is imaged.

An image analyzer is a device for imaging and analyzing blood cells contained in blood samples smeared with blood.

Blood cells include white blood cells (WBC), red blood cells (RBC), platelets.

Among them, leukocytes can be classified into granulocytes, including neutrophils (Neutrophil, NE) and eosinophils (Eosinophil, EO), and basophils (Basophil, BA), and monocytes (Monocyte, MO) and lymphocytes (Lymphocyte, LY). have.

On the other hand, unlike the cell analysis apparatus which has the blood cell analysis capability of the kind limited to 2-5 types recently, 6 or more types and the maximum 14 types of blood cells are analyzed.

Table 1 is a differentiation classification system table of wall blood cells, and FIG. 1 is a view showing an image of each leukocyte described in Table 1.

Mnemonic WBC type One NE Neutrophil (seg & band) 2 ME Metamyelocyte 3 MY Myelocyte 4 PR Promyelocyte 5 LY Lymphocyte 6 LA Lymphocyte, Abnormal 7 LR Lymphocyte, Abnormal 8 MO Monocyte 9 EO Eosinophil 10 BA Basophil 11 BL Blast 12 PC Plasma cell 13 NR NRBC (Erythroblast) 14 AR Cell not reportable

As shown in Table 1 and FIG. 1, the above-described five types of normal blood cells, eight types of abnormal blood cells, and the non-classifiable case may be subdivided into 14 kinds in total.

In practice, various abnormal forms of leukocytes may exist according to the condition of the patient, and the hemocytometer counting the number of each type by each type is very important in identifying the patient's condition, diagnosis, and tracking.

Therefore, various methods have been developed to improve the accuracy of the differential results of the image analyzer.

The present applicant has disclosed and patented a blood cell image pickup apparatus, a blood cell discrimination system, and a blood cell image processing method in Patent Documents 1 to 3 below.

Korean Patent Registration No. 10-1741766 (announced May 31, 2017) Republic of Korea Patent Registration No. 10-1741765 (announced May 31, 2017) Republic of Korea Patent Registration No. 10-1741764 (announced May 31, 2017)

Therefore, it is necessary to develop a technology capable of accurately capturing a total of 14 types of white blood cells including six or more of the above-mentioned types, namely, five types of normal white blood cells and nine types of abnormal white blood cells, and analyzing the captured blood cell images to discriminate blood cells. It is becoming.

However, the blood cell image capturing apparatus according to the prior art detects the position of the white blood cells and the imaging position (distance) of the high magnification camera by using the image captured by the low magnification camera, and according to the detected result, one high magnification camera is used for X-axis, The blood cells image was obtained by capturing the whole blood cells many times while moving in the Y-axis and Z-axis directions.

To this end, the blood cell image pickup apparatus according to the prior art has to delay the image pickup time, to apply a driving means for moving each camera, and to provide a space for securing the moving distance of each camera.

For this reason, the blood cell image pickup apparatus according to the prior art has a problem that it is difficult to reduce the size and weight as the size and weight increase, and the portability and mobility are reduced.

In addition, the blood cell image capturing apparatus according to the related art has a problem in that the imaging speed is slow due to the moving time of the camera, and the quality of the captured blood cell image is deteriorated when the focusing of the high magnification camera is incorrect.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION An object of the present invention is to solve the problems as described above, and to provide a blood cell image pickup apparatus capable of improving blood cell image pick-up speed and image quality, and an image analyzer applied thereto.

Another object of the present invention is to provide a blood cell image pickup device capable of miniaturizing and reducing the blood cell image pickup device and improving portability and mobility, and an image analyzer to which the blood cell image pickup device is applied.

In order to achieve the object as described above, the blood cell image pickup apparatus according to the present invention is a camera unit for capturing the entire area of the blood-slotted slide to capture the blood cell image, the lighting unit and the blood cell for illuminating and irradiating light on the slide And a control unit for controlling driving of each device provided in the image pickup device, wherein the camera unit includes a plurality of camera modules for capturing the entire area of the slide.

In addition, in order to achieve the object as described above, the image analyzer to which the blood cell image pickup apparatus according to the present invention is applied is a blood cell image pickup device for taking blood cells image by taking a blood smeared slide and the blood cell image pickup device And an analysis terminal for discriminating blood cells by analyzing the collected blood cell image, wherein the blood cell image pickup device and the analysis terminal are communicatively connected.

As described above, according to the blood cell image capturing apparatus and the image analyzer to which the present invention is applied, the entire area of the slide is simultaneously taken in parallel using a plurality of camera modules without affecting the motion control of the X, Y, and Z axes. By imaging a blood cell image, the effect that a imaging speed can be improved significantly is acquired.

According to the present invention, the plurality of light sources provided in the illumination unit are sequentially driven to capture a plurality of blood cell images, and the captured blood cell image is integrated to output one blood cell image, thereby improving image quality. Obtained.

Moreover, according to this invention, the effect that a blood cell image pick-up apparatus and an image analyzer can be made small and light can be increased, and mobility and portability can be increased.

1 is a view showing an image of each leukocyte,
2 is a block diagram of an image analyzer to which a blood cell image pickup apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is applied;
3 is a block diagram of a blood cell image pickup apparatus;
4 is a schematic configuration diagram of a camera unit and an illumination unit.
5 is a diagram illustrating a process of integrating a captured image according to an angle at which light of an illumination unit is irradiated.

Hereinafter, a blood cell image pickup apparatus and an image analyzer to which the blood cell image pickup apparatus according to the exemplary embodiment of the present invention is applied will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings.

2 is a block diagram of an image analyzer to which a blood cell image pickup apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is applied, and FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a blood cell image pickup apparatus.

Hereinafter, terms indicating directions such as 'left', 'right', 'front', 'backward', 'upward' and 'downward' are defined as indicating respective directions based on the states shown in each drawing. do.

As shown in FIG. 2, the image analyzer 10 to which the blood cell image capturing apparatus is applied according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention photographs the blood cell image by photographing the blood smeared slide 13. ) And an analysis terminal 12 for discriminating blood cells by analyzing the captured blood cell image.

Here, the blood cell image capturing apparatus 11 and the analysis terminal 12 may be provided as separate devices, and may perform communication by wire or wireless communication.

The analysis terminal 12 may be provided as a desktop computer or a laptop computer, and the analysis terminal 12 may be provided with an analysis program for analyzing and discriminating the captured blood cell image.

Of course, the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto, and may be modified to integrally provide the blood cell image pickup device 11 and the analysis terminal 12.

The blood cell image capturing apparatus 11 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention, as illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3, captures an entire region of the blood-slotted slide 13 to capture a blood cell image 20. ), A lighting unit 30 for illuminating and illuminating the slide 13, and a control unit 40 for controlling the driving of each device.

The camera unit 20, the lighting unit 30, and the controller 40 may be installed inside the hexahedral housing 14, and an inlet 15 through which the slide 13 is inserted may be formed at one side of the housing 14. have.

In addition, the blood cell image capturing apparatus 11 according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention includes a communication unit 50 communicating with the analysis terminal 12 by wire or wireless communication, and a power supply unit 60 for supplying power to each device. It may further include.

The slide 13 includes a patient information area 131 on which patient information is displayed and a blood area 132 on which blood is smeared. The patient information may include a patient's name, age, height, weight, past history, and the like. have.

The camera unit 20 functions to capture the entire area of the slide 13.

In particular, the camera unit 20 may include a plurality of camera modules 21 applied to a mobile device instead of a general industrial camera in order to reduce the size and weight of the blood cell image pickup device 11.

For example, FIG. 4 is a schematic block diagram of the camera unit and the lighting unit.

Each of the plurality of camera modules 21 corresponds to the entire area of the slide 13 (n, n≥2) so that the entire area of the slide 13 can be captured at once, as shown in FIG. 4. Can be installed along rows and columns.

That is, according to the present invention, instead of a high performance industrial camera, a plurality of small and light camera modules to be applied to a mobile device can be provided to capture the entire area of the slide at once.

Of course, the present invention may be modified to arrange the camera module in one row and a plurality of columns, a plurality of columns and one row.

According to the present invention, the number of camera modules and the number of rows and columns in which the camera modules are installed may be variously changed according to the width and length of the slide.

The camera module 21 may include a high resolution camera of about 10 MP or more.

The camera module 21 may further include a lens unit for delivering a blood cell image of the slide 13 to the camera, and an auto focusing unit for moving the lens unit in the Z-axis direction to focus.

In particular, in the present embodiment, a camera module having the PDAF function may be applied to improve the image quality of a captured image by utilizing a phase detection auto focus (PDAF) function of an image signal process. Can be.

The image area captured by the camera may be changed according to the field of view (FOV) of the lens unit.

Therefore, in the present exemplary embodiment, the lens unit may be provided as a narrow angle lens having a depth of field and a narrow FOV.

The auto focusing unit may focus by moving the lens unit or the camera in the Z-axis direction according to a control signal of the controller 40.

The camera unit 20 configured as described above may be manufactured as a module having various sizes and shapes by arranging the plurality of camera modules 21 so as to correspond to the size or shape of the slide 13 to be captured, and detachable to a housing. Can be mounted.

As described above, the present invention can selectively mount a plurality of camera units manufactured in the form of modules having various sizes and shapes to capture blood cell images smeared on slides of various sizes and shapes.

3 and 4 again, the lighting unit 30 functions to illuminate the slide 13 by illuminating light.

To this end, the illumination unit 30 may illuminate the entire slide 13 by using one surface light source or may illuminate the entire slide by arranging a plurality of light sources along a plurality of rows and columns.

However, when one surface light source is applied, as light is scattered in the process of irradiating the slide 13, the image quality of the edge portion of the imaged blood cell image may be lowered than the center of the light source.

In order to solve this problem, in the present embodiment, it is preferable to apply an array method in which a plurality of light sources 31 are arranged along a plurality of rows and columns.

For example, as shown in FIG. 4, the lighting unit 30 arranges the plurality of light sources 31 in an array manner having a plurality of rows and columns in an area corresponding to the entire area of the slide 13, and The entire area in which 31 is installed can be divided into a plurality of zones, for example, the first to eighth zones D1 to D8.

In FIG. 4, the number of light sources 31 installed in each of the zones D1 to D8 is illustrated as four, but the present invention is not necessarily limited thereto, and one or more light sources 31 may be provided in each zone D1. To D8).

In addition, the present invention may vary the number, shape and location of the divided areas according to the width and length and shape of the slide.

The lighting unit 30 configured as described above is preferably manufactured in a size and shape corresponding to the slide 13 having a maximum size and shape generally used so that the slide 13 of various sizes and shapes can be illuminated.

The controller 40 may sequentially photograph the blood cell images a plurality of times while sequentially driving the light sources 31 installed in the divided areas D1 to D8 of the lighting unit 30, and may integrate the plurality of captured blood cell images into one. .

To this end, the controller 40 is an image processor for processing the image of the blood cell image and the driving controller 41 for generating a control signal for controlling the driving of the camera unit 20 and the illumination unit 30 and integrates into one image. (42).

For example, the driving controller 41 generates a trigger signal to sequentially drive the light sources 31 installed for each of the divided regions D1 to D8 of the lighting unit 40, and the entire camera module of the camera unit 20 ( 21) can be controlled to capture a blood cell image.

The image processor 42 may generate an integrated image through the processing of the blood cell images of the respective regions D1 to D8 photographed with the light source 31 driven in the plurality of captured blood cell images.

Alternatively, the image processor 42 may compare the photographed blood cell images and combine them to produce the one image so that each region has the best resolution.

For example, FIG. 5 is a diagram illustrating a process of integrating a captured image according to an angle at which light of an illumination unit is irradiated.

FIG. 5A shows an initial Fourier spectrum (bottom) and interpolated intensity (upper) image, and is irradiated as shown in FIGS. 5B to 5D. By varying the angle of the light to be recovered, an recovered recovering phase (lower) and recovered intensity (upper) are obtained as shown in FIG. 5E through an interactive recovering process. Can be.

On the other hand, the operation of turning on and imaging the light sources 31 provided in the respective areas D1 to D8 of the light source unit 40 can be performed within a very short time of several to several tens of microseconds.

Therefore, the present invention eliminates the moving time of the camera, and sequentially lights only the respective areas of the lighting unit to capture the entire area of the slide, compared to the method of imaging while moving the camera according to the prior art, which is required for image capturing. By drastically shortening the overall time, the imaging speed of the blood cell image can be improved.

Here, the order in which the respective zones D1 to D8 are turned on is not fixed, and may be variously changed according to various conditions such as the type of blood cells to be analyzed, the horizontal and vertical lengths and shapes of the slides, and the like.

In addition, the present invention may improve the image quality by sequentially driving a plurality of light sources provided in the lighting unit to image a plurality of blood cell images, and output a single blood cell image by integrating the captured blood cell image.

Meanwhile, the image processor 42 may improve the image quality of the blood cell image by using various functions applied to the PDAF technology of the image signal process.

For example, the image processor 42 may include black-level compensation, lens shading correction, noise reduction, mosaic, color correction, and gamma correction. (Gamma Correction), Color Conversion, Edge Enhancement, Contrast Enhancement, Noise and Defect-Pixel Compensation, Contrast / Hue Controller, Format Format Conversion, Auto White Balancing, Auto Exposure and Auto Focus can be performed.

Next, a method of operating a blood cell image pickup apparatus and an image analyzer to which the blood cell image pickup apparatus according to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is applied will be described in detail.

According to the operator's power switch operation, the power supply unit 60 supplies power to each device provided in the blood cell image pickup device 11.

When the worker injects the blood-smeared slide 13 into the inlet 15 of the housing 14, the slide 13 is fed to a preset imaging position.

The drive controller 41 of the controller 40 generates a control signal in the form of a trigger signal to drive the lighting unit 30 and the camera unit 40.

In detail, the light sources 31 respectively installed in the first to eighth regions D1 to D8 of the lighting unit 30 are sequentially driven, and the plurality of camera modules 21 provided in the camera unit 20 are each driven. When the light source 21 is driven, the entire area of the slide 13 is imaged.

At this time, the driving controller 41 controls the driving of the auto focusing unit provided in each camera module 21 to focus the blood cell image based on the image incident on the camera module 21.

Subsequently, when the imaging of the blood cell image is completed, the slide 13 is discharged to the outside by the operator, and the image processor 42 is configured to photograph each zone in which the light source 31 is driven in the plurality of captured blood cell images. Through the processing of the blood cell image of the (D1 to D8) to generate a single integrated image.

Then, the control unit 40 transmits the blood cell image integrated through the communication unit 50 to the analysis terminal 12, and the analysis terminal 12 executes an analysis program to analyze the transmitted blood cell image to discriminate the types of blood cells. do.

Through the above process, the present invention can improve the imaging speed by capturing the entire area of the slide using a plurality of camera modules to capture blood cell images.

In addition, the present invention may improve image quality by sequentially driving each array having a plurality of light sources and capturing a plurality of blood cell images and integrating the captured blood cell images to output one blood cell image.

As mentioned above, although the invention made by the present inventor was demonstrated concretely according to the said Example, this invention is not limited to the said Example and can be variously changed in the range which does not deviate from the summary.

The present invention is applied to a blood cell image pickup device which can improve the blood cell image pick-up speed and image quality, and be miniaturized and light weight, which is portable and mobile, and an image analyzer technology to which the same is applied.

10: Image Analyzer
11: blood cell image pickup device 12: analysis terminal
13: Slide 131: Patient Information Area
132: blood region 14: housing
15: inlet 20: camera unit
21: camera module 30: lighting unit
31: light source 40: control unit
41: drive controller 42: image processor
60: communication unit 70: power supply unit

Claims (7)

A camera unit for capturing a blood cell image by capturing an entire area of the blood smeared slide,
An illumination unit for illuminating and illuminating the slide;
It includes a control unit for controlling the driving of each device provided in the blood cell image pickup device,
The camera unit includes a plurality of camera modules for imaging the entire area of the slide,
Each of the plurality of camera modules is provided along a plurality of rows and columns corresponding to the entire area of the slide, so that the entire area of the slide can be captured at one time.
Each camera module includes an auto focusing unit that moves and focuses the lens unit based on the incident blood cell image.
The lighting unit includes a plurality of light sources arranged in an array manner having a plurality of rows and columns in an area corresponding to the entire area of the slide,
The entire area in which the plurality of light sources are installed is divided into a plurality of zones,
The light source installed in each zone is sequentially turned on blood cell image pickup device. delete delete The method of claim 1,
The control unit may include a driving controller for generating a control signal for controlling driving of the camera unit and the lighting unit;
It includes an image processor for processing the image of the blood cell image captured by the camera unit and consolidated into a single image,
And the driving controller controls to photograph the blood cell image by driving all of the camera modules provided in the camera unit while sequentially driving light sources provided for each divided area of the lighting unit. The method of claim 4, wherein
The image processor is a blood cell image pickup apparatus, characterized in that for generating a single integrated image through the processing of the blood cell image of each of the regions photographed in the state in which the light source is driven from the plurality of imaged blood cells image. The method of claim 4, wherein
And the image processor compares the photographed blood cell images and, as a result of the comparison, merges the regions having the maximum resolution of each region to generate an integrated image. A blood cell image pickup device comprising the configuration according to any one of claims 1 and 4 to 6, wherein the blood cell image pick-up apparatus photographs a blood cell image by photographing a blood smeared slide;
A blood cell image analysis device for analyzing blood cells imaged by the blood cell image pickup device to discriminate blood cells;
And a blood cell image pickup device and an analysis terminal are communicatively connected.

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