The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document.
The patent badge is an abbreviated version of the USPTO patent document. The patent badge covers the following: Patent number, Date patent was issued, Date patent was filed, Title of the patent, Applicant, Inventor, Assignee, Attorney firm, Primary examiner, Assistant examiner, CPCs, and Abstract. The patent badge does contain a link to the full patent document (in Adobe Acrobat format, aka pdf). To download or print any patent click here.
Patent No.:
Date of Patent:
Nov. 09, 2004
Filed:
Feb. 21, 2001
Arthur W. Wetzel, Murrysville, PA (US);
John R. Gilbertson, II, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Jeffrey A. Beckstead, Valencia, PA (US);
Patricia A. Feineigle, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Christopher R. Hauser, Pittsburgh, PA (US);
Frank A. Palmieri, Jr., Gibsonia, PA (US);
InterScope Technologies, Inc., Wexford, PA (US);
Abstract
Today's technology allows montage images of large areas to be captured, stored and displayed at the resolution limit of the microscope optics. The invention reduces the overall time to capture a microscope slide by reducing the overhead associated with refocusing the optics at each tile location. Using a macroscopic image of the region to be scanned, representative focus positions are selected based on a predefined set of image characteristics. Prior to montage scanning, these focus positions are placed under the microscope optics and a best-focus position determined. A surface is fit to the resulting three-dimensional data. The parameters that define this surface are feed into the scanning control component to allow high-quality focused images to be acquired throughout the scanning process, eliminating the required stop, refocus, acquire image processing steps used in traditional montage imaging systems.