Patent ID: 8542274

Claim:
A wide field microscopic image acquisition apparatus for acquiring images of a specimen on a microscope slide, the apparatus comprising: first and second illuminators each having unique illumination characteristics; a microscope imaging system including an imaging device, an objective lens and a stage configured to digitally acquire a plurality of images of the specimen using the first and second illuminators; and a controller configured to automatically control the microscope imaging system and scan the specimen on the microscope slide to acquire the plurality of images from a scan area of the specimen using the first and second illuminators; wherein the microscope slide defines a first side of the microscope slide facing to the objective lens and a second side of the slide perpendicular to the first side; the first illuminator comprises a dark field illuminator configured to direct light into the second side of the microscope slide; the second illuminator comprises a fluorescent illuminator; and the controller is configured to acquire a first set of images of the scan area using the dark field illuminator, generate a dark field focus map defining a focal depth for each of the images within the first set of images, store the dark field focus map and acquire a second set images of the scan area using the fluorescent illuminator based on the stored dark field focus map.