Patent ID: 8000511

Claim:
A method comprising: analyzing, by a controller via operation of at least one processor to execute at least one program instruction stored on a machine-readable medium, an image of at least a portion of a scan region to find an area in the image representing a sample; preparing, by the controller, a set of candidate focus points; selecting, by the controller, from the candidate focus points to obtain multiple different selected focus point locations such that the selected focus point locations are distributed across the area representing the sample, wherein the selecting, by the controller, from the candidate focus points comprises uttering a focus point to eliminate collinearity with previous focus points; determining, by the controller, a nature of the sample at each selected focus point location that falls in the area in the image; selecting, by the controller, an automated focusing process for use at each selected focus point location, from among multiple different automated focusing processes, based on the determined nature of the sample at each selected focus point location; and focusing, by operation of the controller, a computer-controlled microscope communicatively coupled to the controller using the selected automated focusing process at each selected focus point location.