Patent ID: 7542596

Claim:
A method of viewing magnified digitized images of microscope slide specimens stored in an organized collection of virtual microscope slides and transmitted over a common communication channel to a remote viewer, the method comprising: providing a server at a transmitting station and storing a collection of organized virtual microscope slides having data for magnified, digitized images of their respective specimens; accessing the transmitting station from a remote location and requesting transmission of image data for a portion of the virtual microscope slide; transmitting image data for the portion of the specified virtual microscope slide over the common communication channel to the remote location; displaying from the transmitted data a digitized image at low magnification of at least a substantial portion of the specified specimen; selecting a location on the digitized image of the specimen for viewing at a higher magnification; using the transmitted image for displaying a digitized image at the higher magnification image for the selected location at the remote location; selecting another location on a displayed image for viewing; transmitting a request from the remote location to the server to transmit additional image data for the another location to the remote location; and transmitting the additional image data and using the additional image data for displaying the selected another location as a magnified image of the actual specimen.