Microscopy Scan Acceleration via Empty Area Detection
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current microscopy systems face limitations in throughput due to inefficient allocation of resources, scanning and processing of artifacts and empty regions, which slows down the imaging process and reduces output quality.
Innovation Solution
A microscope system that selectively identifies and processes regions with artifacts or empty space using image capture devices, illumination assemblies, and processors to determine the presence of artifacts or empty areas, allowing for partial or reduced processing of these regions, thereby accelerating the imaging process.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If the scanning microscope scans the entire sample slide including artifacts and empty regions, then complete coverage of the sample is achieved, but the imaging throughput is reduced due to processing unnecessary regions
Solution Approach 1:
The patent divides the sample slide into multiple regions and uses a low-resolution preview scan to identify which regions contain actual sample material versus artifacts or empty spaces. This segmentation allows the system to selectively apply high-resolution scanning only to relevant regions, thereby improving throughput by avoiding unnecessary scanning of invalid areas while maintaining complete coverage of valid sample regions
Solution Approach 2:
The system performs a preliminary low-resolution scan of the entire slide before conducting high-resolution scanning. This preliminary action identifies regions containing sample material versus artifacts, allowing the subsequent high-resolution scan to be optimized by focusing only on relevant areas, thus reducing total scanning time while maintaining imaging completeness
2Measurement precision
If computational microscopy processes all captured images at high resolution, then image quality is maximized, but computational time and resource usage increase
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies different processing qualities to different regions of the sample based on their content. Regions identified as containing sample material receive full high-resolution processing, while regions identified as artifacts or empty spaces receive reduced or no processing. This local quality approach maintains measurement precision for valid samples while significantly reducing computational time by avoiding processing of unnecessary regions
3Productivity
If the microscope system scans and processes artifact regions with the same resources as valid sample regions, then uniform processing is maintained, but resource allocation efficiency decreases
Solution Approach 1:
The system applies partial processing to regions identified as containing artifacts or empty spaces, rather than applying full processing uniformly across the entire slide. By using a preliminary low-resolution scan to identify invalid regions, the system performs only necessary high-resolution processing on valid sample areas, thereby improving resource allocation efficiency and reducing computational energy waste while maintaining processing quality where needed
Data Source
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AI summary
A microscope comprising an illumination assembly, an image capture device and a processor can be configured to selectively identify regions of a sample comprising artifacts or empty space. By selectively identifying regions of the sample that have artifacts or empty space, the amount of time to generate an image of the sample and resources used to generate the image can be decreased substantially while providing high resolution for appropriate regions of the computational image. The can be processor configured to change the imaging process in response to regions of the sample that comprises artifacts or empty space. The imaging process may comprise a higher resolution process to output higher resolution portions of the computational image for sample regions comprising valid sample material, and a lower resolution process to output lower resolution portions of the computational image for sample regions comprising valid sample material.