Apparatus for and method of
fully automatic rapid scanning and digitizing of an entire
microscope sample, or a substantially large portion of a
microscope sample, using a
linear array detector synchronized with a positioning stage that is part of a computer controlled
microscope slide
scanner. The invention provides a method for composing the image strips obtained from successive scans of the sample into a single contiguous
digital image. The invention also provides a method for statically displaying sub-regions of this large
digital image at different magnifications, together with a reduced
magnification macro-image of the entire sample. The invention further provides a method for dynamically displaying, with or without operator interaction, portions of the contiguous
digital image. In one preferred embodiment of the invention, all elements of the
scanner are part of a single-
enclosure that has a primary connection to
the Internet or to a local
intranet. In this embodiment, the preferred
sample type is a
microscope slide and the illumination and imaging
optics are consistent with transmission mode
optics optimized for
diffraction-limited
digital imaging.