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:
Oct. 18, 2011
Filed:
Sep. 11, 2008
Shuji Akiyama, Tokyo, JP;
Akihiro Kitahara, Tokyo, JP;
Shuji Akiyama, Tokyo, JP;
Akihiro Kitahara, Tokyo, JP;
Olympus Corporation, Tokyo, JP;
Abstract
To provide a confocal microscope for obtaining an extended image by easily determining the capturing range of an observation image without being aware of the shape of a sample to be observed, the confocal microscope comprises confocal image generating unit for generating a confocal image, first counting unit for counting a first number of pixels having a predetermined brightness level or lower among the brightness levels of the pixels of the confocal image, second counting unit for counting a second number of pixels obtained by extracting only a pixel that matches a predetermined condition for the confocal image, and boundary determining unit for detecting a boundary by determining whether or not the observation surface is within the image capturing range based on the first and the second numbers of pixels.