Patent ID: 8731260

Claim:
A system for capturing imagery data using a line scan camera, the system comprising: an objective lens positioned for viewing at least a portion of a sample during constant relative motion; a line scan camera optically coupled to the objective lens and configured to capture imagery data of the sample as a plurality of image stripes; and at least one processor configured to align two or more of the plurality of image stripes by buffering at least two adjacent image stripes in a memory, each of the at least two adjacent image stripes comprising an overlap region, the overlap region comprising imagery data from a same region of the sample as imagery data in another of the at least two adjacent image strips, and performing pattern matching on the overlap regions of the at least two adjacent image stripes by selecting two or more X-Y offsets of the overlap regions of the at least two adjacent image stripes, for each of the two or more X-Y offsets, determining a measurement of alignment by selecting a plurality of pixels from the overlap region of one of the at least two adjacent image stripes, selecting a subset of one or more of the plurality of pixels having the highest intensity value, and for each of the X-Y offsets, for each pixel in the subset of one or more of the plurality of pixels having the highest intensity value, determining a difference between the intensity value of that pixel and an intensity value of a pixel from the overlap region of another one of the at least two adjacent image stripes, and determining the measurement of alignment based on the determined differences in intensity values, and selecting one of the two or more X-Y offsets for which the measurement of alignment indicates a maximum correlation between the overlap regions of the at least two adjacent image stripes.