Olympus Corporation

Olympus Optical Company, Ltd.

Yujin Arai

Yoshihiro Shimada

Hiroshi Sasaki

Hiroshi Miyajima

Toshiyuki Hattori

Shinya Sakamoto

Yoshihisa Tanikawa

Yoshitaka Kamiya

Kenzi Murakami

Masahiro Oba

Nobuyuki Nagasawa

Shinichiro Aizaki

Nobuhiro Takamizawa

Tetsuya Koike

Takeshi Minamide

Yuki Yokomachi

Jun Kato

A light sheet microscope includes an objective, an illumination optical system, a first adjustor, a second adjustor and a controller. The illumination optical system irradiates sample with a light sheet from a direction that is different from an optical axis direction of the objective. The first adjustor adjusts a relative position between a light sheet plane on which the light sheet is formed and the objective in an optical axis direction of the objective. The second adjustor adjusts a relative position between the light sheet plane and the sample in an optical axis direction of the objective. The controller controls the first adjustor on the basis of light that is from the light sheet plane and that is detected via the objective when a relative position between the light sheet plane and the sample is changed by the second adjustor.

Light sheet microscope and control method for light sheet microscope

The present invention provides a light-field microscope including: an illumination optical system that radiates excitation light onto a sample; and a detection optical system including an objective lens that collects fluorescence generated in the sample as a result of the sample being irradiated with the excitation light by the illumination optical system, an image-acquisition element that acquires an image of the fluorescence collected by the objective lens, and a microlens array disposed between the image-acquisition element and the objective lens. The illumination optical system radiates a beam of the excitation light having a predetermined width in the optical-axis direction of the objective lens so as to include the focal plane of the objective lens onto the sample in a direction substantially perpendicular to the optical axis.

Light-field microscope

A laser microscope includes an objective lens that radiates a laser beam onto a specimen; a stimulation optical system having an LCOS-SLM located at a position optically conjugate with the pupil position of the objective lens and which modulates the phase of the laser beam; and an observation optical system having a galvanometer mirror that scans the laser beam across the specimen, as observation illuminating light, and a PMT that detects the observation light coming from the specimen and collected by the objective lens. A control unit forms a three-dimensional image of the specimen and sets, in that image, stimulation sites in the specimen to be irradiated with a laser beam serving as a stimulation beam by the stimulation optical system at a plurality of different positions in the optical axis direction. The LCOS-SLM modulates the laser beam such that the stimulation sites are irradiated with the laser beam.

Laser microscope

An unit for switchable arranging an arbitrary optical element on an optical path of fluorescence from among a plurality of types of the optical elements that transmit an excitation beam for exciting a sample and fluorescence emitted from the sample; an unit for picking up the observation image via the optical element arranged; and an unit for determining a type of the optical element arranged on the basis of the observation image picked up are prepared in order to provide a microscope image processing device, a program product, a program transmission medium and a method are provided, by which an optical element such as a fluorescence cube set on a fluorescence microscope can be identified on the basis of a detection result of an image pick up device that picks up an image of a sample to be observed by using the fluorescence microscope.

Microscope image processing device and program for determining a type of an optical element

An image capturing apparatus having a shutter for making an image capturing element enter a light-shielded state or a light-unshielded state comprises an image capturing condition storing unit for storing a plurality of image capturing conditions, a dark-time image data storing unit for storing a plurality of pieces of dark-time image data captured with the image capturing element under the image capturing conditions in the light-shielded state, a bright-time image data storing unit for storing bright-time image data captured with the image capturing element in the light-unshielded state, a dark-time image data extracting unit for extracting a dark-time image captured under an image capturing condition corresponding to an image capturing condition under which the bright-time image is captured, and a correcting unit for correcting the bright-time image data based on the dark-time image data extracted by the dark-time image data extracting unit.

Image capturing apparatus and dark current component cancel processing method

A camera head acquires a sample image by shooting a scaled up image of a sample obtained by a microscope body. A memory device records the sample image in a record medium. A CPU detects the completion of the sighting on an observed portion of a sample in a microscope body on the basis of a R. G. B data value of each pixel configuring a microscope image detected by the R. G. B data value. Furthermore, the CPU detects the completion of the focusing on the observed portion by the microscope boundary on the basis of the height of the contrast of the microscope image detected by the focusing completion detection unit. When both completion of the sighting and completion of focusing are detected, the CPU controls a memory device to record a sample image acquired by a camera head on a record medium.

Shooting apparatus for a microscope

A scanning examination apparatusis provided, the apparatus including a detachable objective lensor, a scannerfor two-dimensionally scanning light F from a specimenfocused by the objective lensor, a scanner control devicefor controlling the operation of the scanner, and an optical detectorfor detecting light scanned by the scanner, wherein the scanner control devicechanges the scanning direction of the light F depending on an image formation mode of the light F at the objective lensorwhich is attached.

Scanning examination apparatus

A laser scanning microscope enables an observation of a specimen through emitting a laser beam onto the specimen marked by a plurality of fluorescent probes and receiving a fluorescent light back from the specimen corresponding to the emission, and comprises a laser source for generating a laser beam in an excitation wavelength corresponding to the plurality of fluorescent probes, a deflector unit for scanning the generated laser beam over an observation plane of the specimen, a dispersion unit for dispersing a fluorescent light from the specimen to extract it by an arbitrary wavelength interval, a spectral data acquisition condition setting unit for setting a condition for the dispersion unit acquiring a spectral data based on spectrum characteristics of the plurality of fluorescent probes, a dispersion control unit for controlling the dispersion unit based on the set spectral data acquisition condition.

Laser scanning microscope, storage medium storing spectral data acquisition program, and spectral data acquisition method

A fluorescence detection apparatus irradiates a sample with an excitation light having different wavelengths, spectrally detects fluorescence from the sample, and includes: a comparison unit for comparing the wavelength of the excitation light with the starting wavelength of a fluorescent spectrum detection bandwidth; and a determination unit for determining an excitation light irradiation timing such that the irradiation of the excitation wavelength is stopped when the wavelength of the excitation light is longer than the starting wavelength.

Fluorescence detection apparatus and method for excitation light irradiation timing

A light deflector comprises a first movable plate having a reflective surface, fixing portions, a pair of second movable plates located between the first movable plate and the fixing portions, a pair of first elastic members supporting the first movable plate so as to allow it to oscillate with respect to the second movable plates, a pair of second elastic members supporting the second movable plates so as to allow them to oscillate with respect to the fixing portions, and an actuator to oscillate the first movable plate. Oscillation axis of the first elastic members and oscillation axis of the second elastic members are located on the same axis. Stiffness of the second elastic members against oscillation is lower than stiffness of the first elastic members against oscillation.

Light deflector

A scanning laser microscope includes a laser generation unit which generates a laser beam, a light modulation unit which modulates the laser beam, a scanning unit which scans a sample, a light receiving unit which receives a light from the sample, a control unit which controls the light modulation unit for each pixel of a scanning image acquired by the light receiving of the light receiving unit, and a storage unit which stores a plurality of controlled patterns. The number of pixels of the patterns correspond to the number of pixels of the scanned image. A modulation information of the laser beam is set for each pixel. The control unit reads the control patterns stored in the storage unit, controls the light modulation unit based on the modulation information of each pixel, and performs such control that the control patterns are changed at an arbitrary timing.

Scanning laser microscope

A color chart where hue and saturation are changed variously with lightness kept constant is outputted onto a CRT monitor (or a color printer) beforehand. The display color corresponding to a specific wavelength of fluorescence in visual observation is specified on the color chart. The hue and saturation for the display color at that time are stored as color conversion parameters in a data processing unit. Thereafter, the color tone of the one with a specific wavelength of fluorescence among the luminance data of fluorescence of the observed specimen is corrected using the color conversion parameters. The resulting observed image is outputted to the CRT monitor (or color printer). This enables color reproduction of the observed image easily.

Color adjusting method

A laser scan microscope irradiates a sample with a laser beam while simultaneously scanning the laser beam over the sample, and processes an optical signal obtained thereby so as to obtain image data. The laser scan microscope is provided with a photoelectric converting unit, a sensitivity adjuster, and a sampling/converting unit. The photoelectric converting unit converts an optical signal from the sample into an electric signal. The sensitivity adjuster adjusts the sensitivity of the photoelectric converter such that an output value of the photoelectric converting unit becomes closer to a predetermined reference value. The sampling/converting unit samples sensitivity information determined for the photoelectric converter, in accordance with a scanning speed, and converts the sampled sensitivity information into a light measurement value used for obtaining the image data.

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Tokyo, Japan

Yujin Arai