A control apparatus includes: an acquisition unit configured to acquire an operation instruction made by a voice input to an imaging device including: an optical system including a focus lens; and an image sensor; and a controller configured to control the focus lens moving at a first velocity to stop movement when the operation instruction is an instruction to stop an operation of the focus lens, and control the focus lens to move at a second velocity lower than the first velocity.

An intraoral scanner comprises a light source, a moveable opto-mechanical module, an axial actuator, and an image sensor. The light source is configured to generate light that is to be output onto an object external to the intraoral scanner. The moveable opto-mechanical module comprises integrated projection/imaging optics and an exit pupil, the projection/imaging optics having an optical axis, wherein the projection/imaging optics are entirely integrated into the moveable opto-mechanical module. The axial actuator is coupled to the projection/imaging optics and configured to move the moveable opto-mechanical module comprising an entirety of the projection/imaging optics in the optical axis to achieve a plurality of focus settings. The image sensor is configured to receive reflected light that has been reflected off of the object external to the intraoral scanner for the plurality of focus settings.

A method of scanning a laser over a field of view, the method comprising: providing a laser to produce the laser beam; rasterizing the laser beam over a first sub-area of the field of view; deflecting the laser beam to a second sub-area of the field of view; and rasterizing the laser beam over the second sub-area of the field of view; and capturing image information produced by the laser beam so that, for each sub-area of the field of view, the rasterized laser beam defines a plurality of image segments; for each segment calculating an image correction and applying a correction to the laser according to the calculated image correction for the segment, and corresponding system.

A microscope for examining a sample received in a sample carrier having a lid includes: a sample chamber for receiving the sample carrier; a microscope stage arranged below the sample chamber, the microscope stage being arranged to have the sample carrier arranged thereon; and a sample carrier handling device that is at least partially arranged within the sample chamber and that removes the lid from the sample carrier to provide access to the sample.

Systems and methods for passive multi-directional illumination in light-sheet fluorescence imaging and microscopy are disclosed herein. An elliptical light shaping diffuser is placed in the illumination path between the source of a light-sheet and the illuminated sample. The light-sheet is diffused anisotropically along two directions perpendicular to its propagation direction, eliminating stripe artifacts in obtained images. The method includes converting a light-sheet into an elliptically diffuse light-sheet by passing it through an elliptical light shaping diffuser, illuminating a sample with the elliptically diffuse light-sheet. The system includes a light-sheet source, an elliptical light shaping diffuser adapted to convert the light-sheet into an elliptically diffuse light-sheet to illuminate the sample, typical microscopy optics and lenses, and image capturing elements.

Systems and methods of imaging are described. An imaging system comprises a light source configured to projecting a beam of light; a first diffraction grating configured to separating wavelengths of the projected beam of light; a first lens configured to focusing the wavelengths of the projected beam of light projecting from separated by the first diffraction grating; a reticle configured to altering each wavelength of light focused by the first lens; a second lens configured to collimating the wavelengths of light projecting from altered by the reticle; a second diffraction grating configured to multiplexing the collimated light projecting from collimated by the lens; and a third lens configured to projecting the multiplexed light onto an object plane, wherein the multiplexed light is used to generate an image of an object in the object plane.

A system for illuminating a microscopy specimen includes an illumination source configured to emit a light that travels along an illumination path to illuminate the microscopy specimen placed on an optical detection path of an optical microscope. The system also includes optical elements in the illumination path and configured to at least in part transform the light from the illumination source into a light sheet illuminating the microscopy specimen. The optical elements include an electronically tunable lens configured to vary a focal distance of the electronically tunable lens to dynamically vary a position of a waist of the light sheet illuminating the microscopy specimen. The optical elements include a deflector configured to vertically move the light sheet to illuminate the microscopy specimen at different horizontal planes.

A microscopy imaging system comprises a fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy (FLIM) system comprising a pulsed light source configured to direct a plurality of excitation light pulses onto a sample, a photo detector configured to detect emitted fluorescent photons created by the plurality of excitation pulses interacting with the sample, and a FLIM data acquisition system configured to measure the time interval between the excitation light pulses and the detected emitted fluorescent photons, a scanning light microscopy (SLM) system comprising a SLM data acquisition system, a fast scanning mirror and a slow scanning mirror, wherein the mirrors are configured to scan the light pulses across the sample; and a data processing system communicatively connected to the FLIM and SLM systems. Microscopy imaging methods are also disclosed.

Some implementations of the disclosure relate to an imaging system, including: a sample holder to support a sample container having multiple sample locations; an optical stage having; an assembly comprising one or more actuators physically coupled to the sample holder to tilt the sample holder relative to the optical stage during imaging of the multiple sample locations to focus the optical stage onto a current sample location; a first light source to project a first pair of spots on the sample container; and a controller to control, based on a sample tilt determined from a first separation measurement of the first pair of spots from one or more images taken by an image sensor at one or more of the sample locations, the one or more actuators to tilt the sample holder along a first direction of the imaging or a second direction substantially perpendicular to the first direction.

A method for adjusting a focus of an optical system includes focusing measurement light in a sample space using an optical arrangement. The measurement light is transmitted on a sample side of the optical arrangement through at least one optical medium. The measurement light reflected by a reflector and transmitted through a further optical arrangement is detected using a detector arrangement. A working distance between the optical arrangement and the reflector is ascertained based on the measurement light detected by the detector, wherein a focus of the measurement light lies on the reflector for the working distance.