Microscope Image Processing for Seamless Mosaic Boundaries

The patent changes the color (pixel values) of the uncaptured region to match the background color of the captured region. Specifically, it extracts the background color from the captured images and applies it to the uncaptured region, making the boundary inconspicuous. This directly addresses the harmful effect of conspicuous boundaries while maintaining the benefit of extended sample area coverage.

The patent creates homogeneity between the captured and uncaptured regions by making their colors similar. It calculates the average color of the background portions in captured images and applies this uniform color to the uncaptured region, ensuring visual consistency across the entire combined image. This eliminates the harsh contrast at boundaries while preserving the mosaic structure for area expansion.

The patent performs white balance adjustment and shading correction in advance during the image acquisition phase, rather than as post-processing steps. By correcting these issues when the images are first captured, it eliminates the need for time-consuming post-processing operations while maintaining high image quality. This preliminary action resolves the contradiction by improving image quality without adding processing time.

The system performs self-correction by automatically adjusting white balance and shading during the fluorescence observation process itself. The microscope system handles these corrections inherently during image capture, making the processing efficient and eliminating the need for separate, time-consuming correction steps while ensuring high image quality.