Patent ID: 8174763

Claim:
A system for scanning a cytological specimen, comprising: a motorized stage configured to support a cytological specimen slide; a processor operatively coupled to the motorized stage; and a scan controller operatively coupled to the processor, the motorized stage, the processor, and the scan controller being configured such that manipulation of the scan controller provides manual control of movement of the motorized stage along a first scan line to controllably scan a first portion of the cytological specimen slide along the first scan line, and manual control of movement of the motorized stage along the second scan line to controllably scan a second portion of the cytological specimen slide along the second scan line, the processor and the scan controller being further configured such that the motorized stage is automatically indexed from the first scan line to the second scan line between manually controlled scans of the cytological specimen slide along the first and second scan lines, wherein the scan controller is a coaxial controller comprising a first rotary control element that is rotatable, when enabled, to manually control movement of the motorized stage along the first and second scan lines, and a second rotary control element coaxial with the first rotary control element, the second rotary control element being rotatable, when enabled, to manually index the motorized stage, and wherein the processor is configured to disable the second rotary control element during manual control of movement of the motorized stage.