The disclosed spacers for microscope slides may include a spacer body including a material configured to provide an optical focal reference for a microscope and a central opening in the spacer body sized and shaped to receive a cytological sample. The spacer body may have a thickness of about 20 μm or less. Methods of analyzing cytological samples may include disposing a cytological sample on a microscope slide adjacent to a spacer positioned on the microscope slide, focusing an optical module of a microscope to a focal plane using at least a portion of the spacer as a focal reference, and viewing the cytological sample through the optical module of the microscope at the focal plane. Various other related methods, systems, and devices are also disclosed.

An imaging system is described for measuring the position or movement of a particle having a size of less than about 20 microns. The system comprises an optional sample holder configured to hold a sample with a particle, an optional illumination source configured to illuminate the sample, a lens having a magnification ratio from about 1:5 to about 5:1 and configured to generate the image of the sample, an image sensor having a pixel size of up to about 20 microns and configured to sense the image of the sample, and an image processor operatively connected to the image sensor to process the image of the particle in order to determine the position or movement of the particle. The dimension of the image of each particle is at least about 1.5 times the dimension of the particle multiplied by the magnification ratio of the lens, and the image of each particle is distributed on at least two pixels of the sensor. The imaged area of the sample is at least about one millimeter squared.

An imaging system is described for measuring the position or movement of a particle having a size of less than about 20 microns. The system comprises an optional sample holder configured to hold a sample with a particle, an optional illumination source configured to illuminate the sample, a lens having a magnification ratio from about 1:5 to about 5:1 and configured to generate the image of the sample, an image sensor having a pixel size of up to about 20 microns and configured to sense the image of the sample, and an image processor operatively connected to the image sensor to process the image of the particle in order to determine the position or movement of the particle. The dimension of the image of each particle is at least about 1.5 times the dimension of the particle multiplied by the magnification ratio of the lens, and the image of each particle is distributed on at least two pixels of the sensor. The imaged area of the sample is at least about one millimeter squared.

In a measurement of a microscope image, a measurement can be conducted with high accuracy when measuring a measuring object including a step having a depth larger than a depth of focus or comparing patterns at different positions along the optical axis of a microscope. A microscope image measuring device includes: a microscope for obtaining a magnified image of a surface of a measuring object by irradiating the surface with white incident light; a spectral camera for obtaining a spectral image of the magnified image; and an image processing part for extracting the spectral image at each wavelength and performs an image measuring process. The microscope forms an image of a different focal position at each wavelength on the imaging surface of the spectral camera, and the image processing part extracts a spectral image with a wavelength where a measuring point has the highest contrast, and performs edge detection.

The present invention concerns a method for producing a microscopic image with an extended depth of field by means of a microscope. The microscope comprises an images sensor that comprises pixels that are arranged as a matrix that is formed by lines. In a step of the method, a plurality of microscopic frames of a specimen is acquired while a focus position (z) is changed. The microscopic frames are acquired line by line. The focus position (z) is changed over a course of acquiring individuals of the microscopic frames. In a further step, parts of individuals of the acquired lines are identified. These parts sharply image the specimen. The identified parts of the lines are composed in order to form a microscopic image of the specimen with an extended depth of field. Furthermore, the present invention concerns a microscope.

Disclosed is a method of, and associated apparatus for, determining an edge position relating to an edge of a feature comprised within an image, such as a scanning electron microscope image, which comprises noise. The method comprises determining a reference signal from said image; and determining said edge position with respect to said reference signal. The reference signal may be determined from the image by applying a 1-dimensional low-pass filter to the image in a direction parallel to an initial contour estimating the edge position.

Disclosed is a method of, and associated apparatus for, determining an edge position relating to an edge of a feature comprised within an image, such as a scanning electron microscope image, which comprises noise. The method comprises determining a reference signal from said image; and determining said edge position with respect to said reference signal. The reference signal may be determined from the image by applying a 1-dimensional low-pass filter to the image in a direction parallel to an initial contour estimating the edge position.

A device including: a storage section that stores information for measuring a light path difference of two light paths relating to interference of a white light, from a color appearing due to the interference; and a calculation section that measures, from an image configured by a plurality of pixels each including information representing a color, the light path difference relating to each of the pixels, based on at least the information stored in the storage section.

A calculation method, an image-capturing method, and an image-capturing apparatus are provided which can easily calculate a shear amount produced by a predetermined optical element arranged on an optical path of an interference optical system. A calculation method according to the present disclosure is a calculation method of calculating a shear amount produced by a predetermined optical element which is arranged on an optical path of an image-capturing optical system. The calculation method includes a step of capturing a plurality of interference contrast images of a quadric surface included in an object surface by the image-capturing optical system while changing a phase difference between two rays of divided light, a step of obtaining a phase distribution from the plurality of interference contrast images by a phase shift method, a step of measuring a fringe interval of interference fringes due to the quadric surface based on the phase distribution, and a step of calculating the shear amount of the optical element based on a constant in a formula expressing the quadric surface and the fringe interval.

A calculation method, an image-capturing method, and an image-capturing apparatus are provided which can easily calculate a shear amount produced by a predetermined optical element arranged on an optical path of an interference optical system. A calculation method according to the present disclosure is a calculation method of calculating a shear amount produced by a predetermined optical element which is arranged on an optical path of an image-capturing optical system. The calculation method includes a step of capturing a plurality of interference contrast images of a quadric surface included in an object surface by the image-capturing optical system while changing a phase difference between two rays of divided light, a step of obtaining a phase distribution from the plurality of interference contrast images by a phase shift method, a step of measuring a fringe interval of interference fringes due to the quadric surface based on the phase distribution, and a step of calculating the shear amount of the optical element based on a constant in a formula expressing the quadric surface and the fringe interval.