Methods and systems are provided for a microscope assembly. In one example, the microscope assembly include an objective arranged at a top of a plate and aligned with a first side of the plate and a tube lens positioned below the objective along the first side of the plate and spaced away from the objective. The assembly further includes a laser auto-focus oriented parallel with a height of the plate and a light source coupled to a central region of the front face of the plate, between the tube lens and the laser auto-focus.

A multichannel tunable lens system may include a review channel with a fluidic focusing device, which can adjust the focus of the channel rapidly to mitigate environmental vibrations. The review channel may generate high resolution images with reduced blur caused by vibrations or air turbulence while increasing the operating speed of the system. The review channel may include a telescope objective and eyepiece with telecentricity to generate a real image of the pupil in the fluidic focusing device. The system may also include an inspection channel to generate lower resolution images in parallel and a focus channel to determine contour information.

A microscope comprises a microscope objective, a camera and an imaging optical system for imaging an object through the objective to the camera along a first optical path. A projection optical system is provided for projecting a test image onto the object through the objective, and the imaging optical system is configured to image the projected test image from the object to the camera through the objective and along at least part of the first optical path. A focus adjustment system is provided for focusing the test image at the camera. Using the same objective and the same camera for both imaging and focusing allows reduction of the cost of the microscope in comparison with known microscopes that provide separate focusing systems.

An image generation device includes: a detection unit 43 that performs processing of detecting a specific feature from a plurality of focus images which include an observation target and are in different focus states; a determination unit 44 that determines a parameter indicating a degree of application of a region image to a combination region image in a case where the combination region image is generated from the region image, for each set of the region images in a plurality of corresponding regions respectively corresponding to the plurality of focus images, based on the specific feature detected by the detection unit 43; and a generation unit 45 that generates the combination region image by combining the region images for each of the plurality of corresponding regions based on the parameter determined by the determination unit 44.

The present disclosure discloses a method and a system for imaging. The method for imaging objects using the system for imaging. The system for imaging comprises a lens. The objects comprise a first object, a second object and a third object located at different positions on a first preset track. The method for imaging comprises: allowing the lens and the first preset track to move relatively in a first predetermined relationship to acquire a clear image of the third object using the system for imaging without focusing, the first predetermined relationship is determined by a focal plane position of the first object and a focal plane position of the second object. The aforementioned method for imaging is high in imaging efficiency and is capable of fast focusing according to the first predetermined relationship even if focus tracking fails so that the blurring of a photographed image due to defocusing is avoided.

A microscopic image capturing method includes: emitting a light beam from a light beam light source; detecting a spot image by a camera or a photodiode; focusing the spot image by an objective lens actuator moving an objective lens in the optical axis direction of the light beam with respect to a sample container; determining by a reflective surface identification unit whether the light beam has been applied to a defect on the basis of the spot image; when it is determined that the light beam has been applied to the defect, moving by an XY stage the sample container with respect to the objective lens in a direction orthogonal to the optical axis of the light beam in accordance with a prescribed condition; and, when the light beam has not been applied to the defect, capturing a microscopic image of a sample by using an illuminator.

Generation and use of a focus quality metric that is intensity independent is described. In one example, the focus quality metric is generated by acquiring an image, such as an image of a patterned surface of a flow cell, and processing all or part (e.g., a sub-region or sub-image) to generate a Fourier transform of the respective image data. By way of example, in one embodiment a discrete Fourier transform may be applied to a sub-region of an image of a patterned flow cell surface. A focus quality metric that is intensity independent may be derived from the Fourier transform of the image data.

A microscope system includes an objective lens, configured to gather a first light of a target sample to enter a first optical path, wherein the first light converges, at a beamsplitter, with a second light generated by an image projection module after entering the first optical path through a lens assembly; a beamsplitter assembly, configured to respectively separate and cast light in different optical paths; a camera assembly, configured to photograph the target sample in a microscope field of view, to photograph a clearly focused image through a first optical path by using the camera assembly; an auxiliary focusing device, configured to determine a focal length matching the camera assembly; and a focusing device, configured to adjust a focal length of image light entering the camera assembly according to a defocus amount of a target sample image determined by the auxiliary focusing device.

The observation device includes an imaging optical system that includes an imaging lens forming an image of an observation target in a cultivation container, an operating section that performs at least one of a first operation of changing a focal length of the imaging optical system, a second operation of moving the imaging lens in an optical axis direction, or a fourth operation of moving the container in the optical axis direction, a detection section that detects a vertical position of the cultivation container, and an operation controller that controls the operating section based on the vertical position of the cultivation container.

Techniques for acquiring focused images of a microscope slide are disclosed. During a calibration phase, a “base” focal plane is determined using non-synthetic and/or synthetic auto-focus techniques. Furthermore, offset planes are determined for color channels (or filter bands) and used to generate an auto-focus model. During subsequent scans, the auto-focus model can be used to quickly estimate the focal plane of interest for each color channel (or filter band) rather than re-employing the non-synthetic and/or synthetic auto-focus techniques.