A sample holder includes a slide, containing a depression in a surface of the slide. A cover slip is fixed to the slide over the depression so as to define a sample chamber, while leaving a loading area of the depression uncovered, so that a liquid sample deposited in the loading area is drawn into the sample chamber by capillary action.

Disclosed is a method for quantifying living organisms (1, 4) in a liquid sample (2), the method comprising the steps of guiding the liquid sample (2) into a chamber (3), analysing pictures of the sample (2) inside the chamber (3) to detect the number of organisms (4) moving by themselves in the sample, illuminating the sample (2) with light in at least a part of the violet-blue spectrum while detecting the number of organisms (1) that are fluorescent in the sample inside the chamber (3), and analysing pictures of the sample (2) inside the chamber (3) while illuminating the sample (2) with light in at least a part of the violet-blue spectrum to detect the number of organisms (1, 4) that are both moving by themselves and fluorescent. A device (15) for quantifying living organisms (1, 4) and use of a device (15) is also disclosed.

The invention relates the use of single particle light scattering, preferably interferometric scattering microscopy (also referred to herein as iSCAT), to measure the concentration of a particle in a solution. The invention furthermore relates to the use of light scattering to detect lipoprotein particles in a sample, and to related diagnostic and treatment methods.

Provided are an improved holographic reconstruction apparatus and method.

A holographic reconstruction method includes: obtaining an object hologram of a measurement target object; extracting reference light information from the obtained object hologram; calculating a wavenumber vector constant of the extracted reference light information, and generating digital reference light by calculating a compensation term of the reference light information by using the calculated wavenumber vector constant; extracting curvature aberration information from the object hologram, and then generating digital curvature in which a curvature aberration is compensated for; calculating a compensated object hologram by multiplying the compensation term of the reference light information by the obtained object hologram; extracting phase information of the compensated object hologram; and reconstructing 3-dimensional (3D) shape information and quantitative thickness information of the measurement target object by calculating the quantitative thickness information of the measurement target object by using the extracted phase information of the compensated object hologram.

Embodiments disclose a device for testing biological specimen. The device includes a receiving mechanism to receive a carrier. The carrier includes a holding area that carries or has been exposed to the biological specimen. The device includes a camera module arranged to capture imagery of the holding area. The camera module includes an focusing motor operable to adjust a focal point of the camera. The device also includes a processor that is configured to utilize the camera module to determine, based on operations of the focusing motor, a volumetric property of the holding area and perform a set of analytic processes on at least a portion of the captured imagery of the holding area to determine one or more properties of the biological specimen.

There is provided an image processing apparatus including a motion detector that detects motion of an observation target from a hologram of the observation target, a hologram processing unit that extracts a portion of the hologram based on a result obtained by detecting the motion of the observation target, and a reconstruction unit that reconstructs an image from a portion of the extracted hologram.

A fluorescence image analyzer, analyzing method, and pretreatment evaluation method capable of determining with high accuracy whether a sample is positive or negative are provided. A pretreatment part performs pretreatment including a step of labeling a target site with a fluorescent dye to prepare a sample. A fluorescence image analyzer measures and analyzes the sample. The fluorescent image analyzer includes light sources to irradiate light on the sample, imaging part to capture the fluorescent light given off from the sample irradiated by light, and processing part for processing the fluorescence image captured by the imaging part. The processing part extracts the bright spot of fluorescence generated from the fluorescent dye that labels the target site from the fluorescence image for each of a plurality of cells included in the sample, and generates information used for determining whether the sample is positive or negative based on the bright spots extracted for each of the plurality of cells.

Described herein are systems, methods, and apparatus for automatically identifying and recovering individual cells of interest from a sample of biological matter, e.g., a biological fluid. Also described are methods of enriching a cell type of interest. These systems, methods, and apparatus allow for coordinated performance of two or more of the following, e.g., all with the same device, thereby enabling high throughput: cell enrichment, cell identification, and individual cell recovery for further analysis (e.g., sequencing) of individual recovered cells.

An image capturing system includes a camera unit that captures an image of a cell; a display unit; an input unit that receives input from an operator regarding a selection operation on the cell; an analyzing unit that analyzes the image corresponding to the cell to which the selection operation is given and extracts a feature amount of the cell; and a specifying unit that specifies a recommended cell. The specifying unit sets a parameter that defines a range of the cell to be selected based on the feature amount of the cell to which the selection operation is given up to a first time point. In an image including the cell obtained by image capturing at a second time point later than the first time point, the specifying unit specifies the recommended cell on which the operator is prompted to make a selection based on the parameter.

Apparatus and methods are described for use with a digital camera that is configured to acquire images of a bodily sample. Two or more stains are configured to stain the bodily sample. A computer processor drives the digital camera to acquire, for each of a plurality of imaging fields of the bodily sample, two or more digital images, at least one of the images being acquired under brightfield lighting conditions, and at least one of the images being acquired under fluorescent lighting conditions. The computer processor performs image processing on the digital images, by extracting visual classification features from the digital images and analyzing the extracted visual classification features. The computer processor outputs a result of the image processing that includes an indication of one or more entities that are contained within the sample. Other applications are also described.