Patent ID: 8059336

Claim:
A system for creating a contiguous digital image volume of portion of a microscope sample, comprising: a motorized stage configured to support a microscope sample and move the microscope sample in a first direction and second direction in the plane of the motorized stage; an illumination system configured to illuminate a portion of the microscope sample; a first objective lens for viewing the illuminated portion of the microscope sample, the first objective lens positioned along a first optical axis centered about the portion of the sample illuminated by the illumination system and tilted relative to the plane of the motorized stage; a first camera optically coupled with the first objective lens and centered about the first optical axis to create a first focal plane that is tilted relative to the plane of the motorized stage, the first camera configured to create a plurality of first images of a portion of the microscope sample, each of the plurality of first images created along the first optical axis; a second objective lens for viewing the illuminated portion of the microscope sample, the second objective lens positioned along a second optical axis centered about the portion of the sample illuminated by the illumination system and tilted relative to the plane of the motorized stage, wherein the second optical axis is orthogonal to the first optical axis; a second camera optically coupled with the second objective lens and centered about the second optical axis to create a second focal plane that is tilted relative to the plane of the motorized stage, the second camera configured to create a plurality of second images of a portion of the microscope sample, each of the plurality of second images created along the second optical axis; a focusing system configured to focus the first camera and the second camera during creation of each first image and each second image; an image composer configured to align adjacent first images into a contiguous first image volume of a portion of the microscope sample, the image composer configured to align adjacent second images into a contiguous second image volume of the portion of the microscope sample, and the image composer configured to combine the first image volume and the second image volume into a three dimensional image of the portion of the microscope sample; and a data storage area configured to store the three dimensional image.