Patent ID: 8755579

Claim:
A microscope slide scanner for creating a contiguous digital image of an entire microscope sample, comprising: a motorized stage configured to support a microscope sample and move the microscope sample at a substantially constant velocity; at least one objective lens positioned for viewing at least a portion of the microscope sample; at least one line scan camera optically coupled to the at least one objective lens, the line scan camera comprising a plurality of pixel elements arranged in at least one linear array that defines a linear field of view; at least one focusing optics whereby an optical signal from the objective lens is focused onto the plurality of pixel elements of the at least one line scan camera; at least one data processor configured to synchronize a velocity of a motion of the motorized stage with a line rate of the at least one line scan camera to digitize a plurality of contiguous linear fields of view of a microscope sample supported on the motorized stage, while adjusting a focus height of the at least one objective lens in parallel with the motion of the motorized stage, store, in a memory, said plurality of contiguous linear fields of view as a digital image strip, assemble a plurality of digital image strips into a contiguous digital image of the entire microscope sample, and store the contiguous digital image.