Patent ID: 7554572
Filing Date: 2009-06-30
Classification: G01J,G01N,G02B

Abstract:
1. An observation system comprising: an image pickup apparatus which includes: an image processing apparatus that processes information of the images captured by the solid-state image pickup device; a display apparatus that displays images supplied by the image processing apparatus; a first illumination device for illuminating a relatively narrow area of the object; and a second illumination device for illuminating a relatively broad area of the object; wherein the image processing apparatus forms an image of the object by using information captured by the solid-state image pickup device using the zero-order diffracted light, and also forms a spectral image of the object by using information captured by the solid-state image pickup device using one of the −1st-order diffracted light and the +1st-order diffracted light; and the image processing apparatus extracts spectral information of the object from one of the −1st-order diffracted light image and the +1st-order diffracted light image captured by the solid-state image pickup device when the object is illuminated by the first illumination device, and extracts morphological information of the object from the zero-order diffracted light image captured by the solid-state image pickup device when the object is illuminated by the second illumination device.