Patent ID: 7638748

Claim:
A method of capturing a focused image, through an objective, of a slide on a stage, at least one of the objective and the slide being configured to continuously move with respect to each other, said method comprising: continuously moving one of a slide and an objective in a direction past the other of the slide and the objective, the slide being supported by a stage; capturing, with a focus imaging device, at least one image of a portion of the slide through the objective, as the slide moves laterally with respect to the objective, at a first focus level above a focal plane and at a second focus level below a focal plane with respect to the slide; determining a maximum contrast value from the at least one image, the at least one image having the maximum contrast value thereby representing an optimum focus level for the portion of the slide; and with a slide imaging device disposed at least one field of view behind the focus imaging device in the movement direction, capturing a focused image of the portion of the slide through the objective, as the slide moves laterally with respect to the objective, at the optimum focus level determined from the at least one image captured by the focus imaging device.