Source: http://www.google.com/patents/US6282019?ie=ISO-8859-1
Timestamp: 2015-05-06 04:01:42
Document Index: 14500533

Matched Legal Cases: ['art 17', 'art 16', 'art 17', 'art 20', 'art 16', 'art 20']

Patent US6282019 - Computer supported video microscope including a linear sensor for generating ... - Google PatentsSearch Images Maps Play YouTube News Gmail Drive More »Sign inAdvanced Patent SearchPatentsThe invention relates to a compact microscope 4 especially for medical routine applications. The microscope is configured as a closed housing 8 wherein the specimen 30 to be microscoped is drawn in via an input opening 25. All optical components of the microscope are mounted within the housing. Alternatively,...http://www.google.com/patents/US6282019?utm_source=gb-gplus-sharePatent US6282019 - Computer supported video microscope including a linear sensor for generating an overview imageAdvanced Patent SearchPublication numberUS6282019 B1Publication typeGrantApplication numberUS 09/708,538Publication dateAug 28, 2001Filing dateNov 9, 2000Priority dateMar 24, 1995Fee statusPaidAlso published asDE19609288A1, DE19609288B4, US5949574, US6198573Publication number09708538, 708538, US 6282019 B1, US 6282019B1, US-B1-6282019, US6282019 B1, US6282019B1InventorsHans-Georg KapitzaOriginal AssigneeCarl-Zeiss-StiftungExport CitationBiBTeX, EndNote, RefManPatent Citations (17), Referenced by (3), Classifications (16), Legal Events (6) External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, EspacenetComputer supported video microscope including a linear sensor for generating an overview image
US 6282019 B1Abstract
What is claimed is: 1. A computer supported video microscope arrangement comprising:
a closed housing having a front wall defining an input opening for introducing a specimen; a plurality of optical components for illuminating and viewing said specimen; all of said optical components being mounted inside said housing; and, a linear sensor mounted in said housing in the vicinity of said input opening for generating an overview image of said specimen when said specimen is passed into said housing. 2. The computer supported video microscope arrangement of claim 1, further comprising a motorized take-in device for drawing said specimen into the interior of said microscope housing; and, said linear sensor being adapted to generate a trigger signal for initiating operation of said motorized take-in device whereby said device draws said specimen into said interior.
This is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/389,368, filed Sep. 3, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,198,573, which, in turn, is a divisional of application Ser. No. 09/136,358, filed Aug. 19, 1998 (now U.S. Pat. No. 5,949,574), which, in turn, is a divisional of application Ser. No. 08/621,037, filed on Mar. 22, 1996, now abandoned.
A module-assembled microscope is also known from British patent application 2,084,754 which comprises a frame having several insert receptacles and wherein the illuminating module and the viewing module can be inserted in different receptacles of this frame. In this way, and depending upon requirements, an upright or an inverse microscope can be selectively realized with the aid of the same optical components. The possibility here is also suggested to connect a video camera with downstream image processing via a video output. The space requirement of this system is, however, at least as large as with the microscope of the above-mentioned United States Patent. In addition, a monocular compact microscope is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,377 which includes a closed housing and wherein the microscopic specimen can be introduced for viewing into the interior of the housing via a housing opening. Here, a very simple microscope is however described wherein no computer support such as image recordation or image processing is possible.
The control of the entire microscope with the exception of introducing the specimen takes place in both embodiments via the input means of the computer such as keyboard, mouse, touchscreen, trackball or trackpad. All movable optical and mechanical components within the microscope are therefore motorically driven. The electronic components for driving the motorized movements should then be mounted on a drive board outside of the microscope such as on an insert board of the computer. The heat emanating from the drive board is thereby kept from the microscope and can therefore not lead to thermal expansions within the microscope which would disadvantageously influence the beam path. The drive board and the microscope are connected to each other via a digital data path.
A Z-shaped beam path within the mcoscope is advantageous for an especially compact configuration. The light emitted from a light source is first guided along an optical axis lying in a first plane (an illuminating plane) and is deflected at the center of the microscope by a mirror in a direction perpendicular to the illuminating plane and, after passing through the specimen, the light is deflected by a second mirror along an optical axis lying in a second viewing plane parallel to the first viewing plane. Thereafter, the light is guided in this second plane to a video sensor. The beam path can be additionally folded in each of these planes in order to obtain an adequately long optical path length in the illuminating plane as well as in the viewing plane. A third plane is parallel to the illuminating and viewing planes. In this additional plane, a support surface is provided as an object table and is aligned to the insert opening in the housing.
The arrangement of the optical components on the viewing end is essentially point symmetrical to the illuminating beam path with respect to the intercept of the optical axis of the illuminating beam path with the specimen plane. The optical components of the front part 17 of the objective are therefore mounted coaxially to the front part 16 of the condenser and can be pivoted motorically out of the beam path for imaging with a low magnification scale. The vertically running beam path is deflected behind the front part 17 of the objective into the viewing plane parallel to the illuminating plane via a further mirror 18. The beam path thereafter runs through a second objective part 20. Likewise, and as with condenser (13, 16), the two objective parts (17, 20) can each include several lenses or lens groups and are shown as individual lenses only for simplification. The beam path is deflected rearwardly in the viewing plane via a downstream mirror 21 and then reaches a camera chip 23 behind viewing zoom 22 driven by a motor 22 a. A further motorized diaphragm slide 19 is mounted in the viewing beam path for specific contrast methods such as, for example, phase contrast or differential interference contrast (DIC). The diaphragm slide 19 has several different switching positions (19 a, 19 b) of which only two are shown here. The switching positions of this diaphragm slide 19 are coupled to the switch positions of the condenser diaphragm slide 14 via a computer program so that the corresponding contrast demodulator (19 a, 19 b) can be switched into the beam path when selecting a special contrast method and the corresponding switch position of the diaphragm slide 14. If, for example, phase contrast is desired and, corresponding thereto, an annular diaphragm is switched into the beam path via the diaphragm slide 14, then the corresponding phase plate is switched into the viewing beam path automatically via the diaphragm slide 19. The same corresponds also for the differential interference contrast. Then, corresponding mutually adapted DIC-prisms and polarization foils are switched in both at the illuminating end as well as at the viewing end.
The desired contrast method and the desired magnification can be adjusted via the computer keyboard 6. In correspondence to the desired magnification, the front lens 17 of the objective is either pivoted into or out of the beam path and the viewing zoom 22 is adjusted by the drive motor 22 a. The illuminating end components such as the front part 16 of the condenser and the condenser zoom 11 are adjusted program controlled to Kohler illumination. To focus in the sense of a passive autofocus as it is realized, for example, in the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,099, the second objective part 20 is displaced parallel to the optical axis in such a manner that the image recorded with the camera chip 23 exhibits maximum contrast. Additionally, and thereafter, refocusing can be manually performed by the mouse or by means of the direction keys on the computer keyboard in order to focus, for example, on contrast weak image details.
The entire arrangement shown in FIGS. 2 and 3 for the microscope of the invention has approximately width of 140 mm, a depth of 170 mm and a height of 40 mm or 80 mm. The manipulator 29 for moving the specimen 30 has a clear moving path of over 75 mm in the depth direction of the microscope and of over 25 mm in the width direction of the microscope. In this way, all positions of a conventional object carrier can be brought between the front lenses of the objective and the condenser. The entire beam guidance is configured as compact as possible. For this purpose, the camera chip 23 has a format of at most a half inch and the entire optic within the microscope is designed for correspondingly small image fields. In this way, the focal intercepts of the imaging optics used are reduced to approximately 30% to 50% of the focal intercepts of conventional microscope optics (for image field diameters of approximately 20 mm) which is very advantageous for the compact configuration.
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