An apparatus is provided for monitoring a focal state of a microscope having an object plane and a main imaging area The apparatus has an auxiliary light source providing an auxiliary light beam and coupling the auxiliary light beam into the microscope in such a way that the coupled auxiliary light beam runs within a plane which is spanned outside of the main imaging area by a straight line running in the object plane and a normal to the object plane, and that the coupled auxiliary light beam is inclined at an angle to a normal to the object plane. A part of the coupled auxiliary light beam reflected by a reference boundary surface in the microscope impinges on a registration device in an area of incidence. The registration device registers position changes of the area of incidence on the registration device.

Methods and systems are provided herein for a surgical optical system having a heads up display including, in accordance with various embodiments, an optical device, an image sensor optically coupled to the optical device to acquire image data from a field of view of the optical device, and a display device configured to display an acquired image representing the image data acquired by the image sensor.

An auto-focusing system is disclosed. The system includes an illumination source. The system includes an aperture. The system includes a projection mask. The system includes a detector assembly. The system includes a relay system, the relay system being configured to optically couple illumination transmitted through the projection mask to an imaging system. The relay system also being configured to project one or more patterns from the projection mask onto a specimen and transmit an image of the projection mask from the specimen to the detector assembly. The system includes a controller including one or more processors configured to execute a set of program instructions. The program instructions being configured to cause the one or more processors to: receive one or more images of the projection mask from the detector assembly and determine quality of the one or more images of the projection mask.

The present invention provides a phase difference observation apparatus that can reduce the size of the apparatus by not requiring an additional imaging unit and can suppress deterioration of the phase difference image due to the meniscus. The phase difference observation apparatus of the present invention includes a light source; an illumination optical system that guides illumination light from the light source to an observation target object in a cell culture vessel; an imaging optical system that forms an optical image of the observation target object on an image sensor; and a control unit. The illumination optical system includes a spatial modulator that changes an intensity distribution of the illumination light, the control unit contains intensity distribution correction information associating a position of the imaging optical system with respect to the cell culture vessel with an intensity distribution of illumination light at the position of the imaging optical system, the control unit acquires imaging system position information, which is the position of the imaging optical system, and the control unit changes an intensity distribution of illumination light in the spatial modulator on the basis of the imaging system position information and the intensity distribution correction information.

The present invention relates to digital pathology, and relates in particular to a digital pathology scanner illumination unit. In order to provide digital pathology scanning with improved illumination, a digital pathology scanner illumination unit (10) is provided that comprises a light source (12), a light mixing chamber (14), and a light diffuser (16). The light source comprises a plurality of light elements (18) that are arranged longitudinally along a linear extension direction. The mixing chamber comprises a transparent volume (22) providing a mixing distance (DM) between the plurality of the light elements and the light diffuser such that light with a uniform intensity is provided at a downstream edge (26) of the mixing chamber; and the mixing chamber is arranged, in terms of light propagation, between the plurality of the light elements and the light diffuser. Further, the light diffuser comprises a diffusing material such that the light is transformed into light that has uniformity at different angles, in particular low angles.

Laser emission based microscope devices and methods of using such devices for detecting laser emissions from a tissue sample are provided. The scanning microscope has first and second reflection surfaces and a scanning cavity holding a stationary tissue sample with at least one fluorophore/lasing energy responsive species. At least a portion of the scanning cavity corresponds to a high quality factor (Q) Fabry-Prot resonator cavity. A lasing pump source directs energy at the scanning cavity while a detector receives and detects emissions generated by the fluorophore(s) or lasing energy responsive species. The second reflection surface and/or the lasing pump source are translatable with respect to the stationary tissue sample for generating a two-dimensional scan of the tissue sample. Methods for detecting multiplexed emissions or quantifying one or more biomarkers in a histological tissue sample, for example for detection and diagnosis of cancer, or other disorders/diseases are provided.

A method for producing a preview image with an inclined-plane microscope with a tilted illumination plane include illuminating, at successive points in time, different illumination planes, which are tilted relatively to an optical axis of an optical viewing element and spaced apart from one another. The illumination planes are imaged onto a sensor with photosensitive elements arranged line-by-line. The preview image is produced by successively reading out strip-type read-out areas of the sensor, a longitudinal extension of the read-out areas being oriented parallel to the lines of the photosensitive elements, such that the preview image reproduces a viewing plane perpendicular to the optical axis of the optical viewing element.

An example apparatus includes a sampling layer to position microscopic objects thereon, a light encoding layer to encode light from passing through the microscopic objects of the sampling layer, the light encoding layer having a substantially flat form, and an imaging layer to capture an image of the sampling layer, the image being encoded by the light encoding layer.

Optically computed phase imaging systems and methods are provided. An example system includes an interferometer configured to output 3D spatial-spectral data of a sample including an interferometric signal and an optical computation assembly having a spatial light modulator configured to modulate the 3D spatial-spectral data with a modulation pattern. The modulation pattern modulates the interferometric signal along a spectral dimension to select a depth to obtain a sample signal at the selected depth and modulates the interferometric signal along a first spatial dimension to create a waveform to facilitate phase extraction. The system further includes a detector configured to detect 2D spatial data of the sample. The system further includes a processor coupled to a memory, the processor configured to process the 2D spatial data to extract phase information of the sample.

A microscopy system includes a microscope, a stand configured to mount the microscope and including a drive device configured to move the microscope, a detection device configured to detect a spatial position of a target fastened to a body part or to an instrument, wherein the position detection device includes the target with at least one marker element and an image capture device configured to optically capture the target. The microscopy system further includes at least one control device configured to operate the microscopy system according to the detected position of the target, wherein the position detection device is configured to determine the position of the target by evaluating a two-dimensional image of the image capture device. In addition, a method for operating the microscopy system is provided.