Patent ID: 7680316

Claim:
An imaging device comprising: a carrier stage for carrying a sample slide, a light source for illuminating the sample slide, said sample slide including an array of samples, a drive mechanism for moving the carrier stage and the sample slide relative to the light source such that successive portions of the sample slide are illuminated by the light source; a digital optical camera system arranged to operate in at least two modes, namely a diffraction or deflection mode, in which light rays diffracted or otherwise deflected at the array of samples on the sample slide are captured by a camera, and a fluorescent mode, in which light rays emitted from fluorescent markers on the array of samples are captured: wherein the digital optical camera system is arranged to operate in the deflection or diffraction mode when the drive mechanism moves the carrier stage in a first direction and is arranged to operate in the fluorescent mode when the drive mechanism moves the carrier stage in a second direction; wherein the digital optical camera system is disposed such that, in use, the digital optical camera system captures substantially only said successive portions of light rays which emerge from the sample slide at an offset angle relative to light rays from the light source transmitted through and emerging from the sample slide to generate a series of partial images arranged to be reconstructed into an image of the sample slide or array of samples.