Patent ID: 7787674

Claim:
A system for providing three dimensional views of virtual slide information contained in a computer constructed image object, comprising: a computer constructed image object having a plurality of Z-planes comprising: a bottom plane of scanned imagery data having an image thickness of one pixel; a top plane of scanned imagery data having an image thickness of one pixel; two or more planes of scanned imagery data between the top plane of scanned imagery data and the bottom plane of scanned imagery data, wherein the bottom plane of imagery data and a first of the two or more planes of scanned imagery data define a first imagery data free area between them, and wherein the top plane of imagery data and a second of the two or more planes of scanned imagery data define a second imagery data free area between them; and an image library module configured to access the computer constructed image object and provide a cross layer view of contiguous virtual slide information, wherein the cross layer view extends across at least two Z-planes, and wherein a focus value is obtained for each Z-plane and the focus values for each Z-plane are combined to form the cross layer view.