Digital Slide Microscopic Scanning Apparatus Two-Stage Imaging
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Solution Overview
Problem
Existing digital slide microscopic scanning apparatuses are time-consuming and inefficient due to high pixel counts and large file sizes, making it difficult to quickly scan large numbers of slides and transmit or store the digital files.
Innovation Solution
A digital slide microscopic scanning apparatus comprising a sample library, a transfer device with a robotic arm and gripper, and a scanning device with two cameras and a processing unit, which conducts a full-frame scan at a lower magnification followed by a targeted scan at a higher magnification, reducing image acquisition and file conversion time while minimizing data size.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If high-magnification scanning (20× or 40×) is used to create detailed panoramic micro-scans, then image detail and measurement precision are improved, but scanning time and data processing time increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The scanning process is divided into two distinct stages: a low-magnification full-frame scan to identify regions of interest, and a high-magnification targeted scan only of the selected area. This segmentation allows the system to maintain high measurement precision for the critical areas while reducing overall scanning time by avoiding unnecessary high-magnification scanning of the entire slide.
Solution Approach 2:
Instead of scanning the entire slide at high magnification, the system performs a partial scan at low magnification to identify the target area, then applies high magnification only to the necessary portion. This partial action approach reduces the total scanning time and data processing requirements while maintaining sufficient detail for the specific areas that need it.
2Measurement precision
If high-resolution images are captured with high pixel count, then image quality is improved, but file size increases making storage and transmission inefficient
Solution Approach 1:
The imaging process is segmented into two phases: initial low-resolution full-frame imaging to locate regions of interest, and subsequent high-resolution imaging only of the selected target area. This segmentation produces a smaller total data volume while maintaining high image quality for the critical areas that require it.
Solution Approach 2:
The system extracts only the necessary portion of the slide for high-resolution scanning based on the low-magnification overview. By taking out only the relevant target area for detailed scanning rather than scanning the entire slide at high resolution, the system reduces data size while preserving image quality where needed.
3Reliability
If the entire slide is scanned at high magnification, then complete coverage is achieved, but time consumption increases significantly for processing large numbers of slides
Solution Approach 1:
The scanning process is segmented into a rapid low-magnification full-slide survey to ensure complete coverage identification, followed by selective high-magnification scanning only of marked target areas. This segmentation maintains reliability in terms of slide coverage while dramatically improving productivity by reducing the time required to process each slide.
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs a preliminary low-magnification scan of the entire slide to identify and mark target areas before conducting the high-magnification scan. This preliminary action ensures that the subsequent high-resolution scanning is focused only on relevant areas, maintaining comprehensive coverage where needed while reducing overall processing time to improve throughput.
Data Source
AI summary
Disclosed is a digital slide microscopic scanning apparatus and a slide microscopic scanning method. The digital slide microscopic scanning apparatus has a sample library, a transfer device, and a scanning device. The transfer device is used to transfer slides containing biological microtissues between the sample library and the scanning device. The scanning device has a first camera and a second camera. The first camera scans the slide full-frame at a lower first magnification to obtain a first microscopic image and determines the target area of the slide based on this first microscopic image. The second camera scans this target area at a higher magnification to obtain a second microscopic image. Both the first and second microscopic images are acquired rapidly, and the size of data in the converted first digital file and the second digital file is small.