Imaging Moving Capillaries via Temporal Image Shuffling
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current imaging technologies for blood vessels in living tissues, such as the chicken Yolk-Sac or Chorioallantoic membrane, struggle with accurately imaging moving tissues without blurriness and fail to assess blood flow quantitatively, especially in capillaries, due to limitations in alignment processes and the need for fluorescence labeling or fixation.
Innovation Solution
A device comprising a light source, camera, microscope, and process/display unit that acquires and processes images by selecting sharp images, shuffling them to decorrelate temporal correlations, realigning spatially, and generating projected images showing extremal or average intensity values to render erythrocyte positions and flow, allowing for robust image alignment and quantitative blood flow assessment without labeling or fixation.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If image alignment processes are used to image moving tissues, then spatial realignment is achieved, but image blurriness occurs and measurement reliability deteriorates
Solution Approach 1:
Instead of aligning images chronologically (consecutive frames), the patent inverts the approach by shuffling images temporally before alignment. This decorrelation technique prevents the alignment algorithm from being misled by moving erythrocytes, as non-consecutive images have different blood cell positions. The inversion of the temporal sequence resolves the contradiction by making alignment reliable even in moving tissues.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent creates a virtual copy of the image sequence with shuffled temporal order. This copied and reorganized sequence is then aligned without introducing blurriness, as the copying process preserves image quality while the shuffling enables reliable alignment. This allows quantitative blood flow measurement without the reliability issues of conventional alignment methods.
2Illumination intensity
If fluorescence dyes or tissue fixation is used to image blood vessels, then vessel visibility is improved, but the ability to observe dynamic changes over time is lost and cost increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent exploits the natural optical properties of erythrocytes (light absorption) to create contrast without external labeling. The blood cells themselves serve as the contrast mechanism, eliminating the need for fluorescence dyes or fixation. This allows continuous, long-term observation of living tissues with natural vessel visibility, resolving the contradiction between visibility and observation duration.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent replaces the chemical/molecular approach (fluorescence labeling) with a physical/optical approach (exploiting light absorption by moving erythrocytes). This substitution enables dynamic imaging of living tissues over extended periods without the limitations of labeling methods, achieving both good vessel visibility and long observation duration.
3Ease of operation
If conventional image alignment is applied to moving tissues, then spatial realignment is attempted, but the process fails when the background is moving
Solution Approach 1:
The patent inverts the conventional alignment approach by shuffling the temporal sequence of images before alignment. This decorrelation technique ensures that the background (tissue structure) can be reliably aligned while moving erythrocytes appear as transient features. The inversion makes the alignment process robust against moving backgrounds, as non-consecutive images have different blood cell positions but similar tissue structures.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
Enables clear, quantitative imaging of capillary blood vessels in moving tissues, providing detailed insights into vascular development and blood flow without the need for fluorescent dyes or tissue fixation, with the ability to observe over extended periods and measure vessel depth and cross-sections.
Implementation Method 1
a light source; an optical device to guide the light towards the living tissue, the light being absorbed by erythrocytes of the capillary blood vessels
Data Source
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AI summary
A device for automatically imaging the capillary blood vessels of a living tissue likely to move, configured for selecting images of the sequence, called 'sharp images', arranged in chronological order of acquisition, shuffling the sharp images, for decorrelating temporally the sharp images, by arranging them in a shuffled order different from the chronological order, realigning spatially the sharp images arranged in the shuffled order, generating a projected image by projection of the pixels of the realigned sharp images, in a stack, the projected values of the pixels forming the projected image being extremal intensity values of the pixels of all the sharp images, the projection of the extremal of intensity values of the pixels rendering all the positions of all erythrocytes of all the sharp images in the projected image.