Patent Document ID: 8532950
Application ID: 12402783
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A method for automatically calibrating a stage-camera system of a microscope, comprising the steps of: providing a stage-camera system with a stage and a camera, wherein the stage and the camera are arranged relative to one another in an arbitrary reference position, and several objects are arranged on the stage in a recording region of the camera, recording a reference image of the objects in the reference position, wherein the reference image includes the objects, moving the stage-camera system with at least one electric drive motor such that the stage and the camera are arranged relative to one another in at least one calibration position, wherein the stage-camera system is moved in different directions to several different calibration positions, each calibration position is different from the reference position, and at least a portion of at least one of the objects is located in the recording region of the camera in the each calibration position, recording a calibration image of the at least one object in each calibration position, wherein each calibration image includes the portion of the at least one object, determining a travel distance from the reference position to each calibration position in a first coordinate system with an electronic control device, registering each calibration image with the reference image based on the at least one object with the electronic control device, wherein the registration of each calibration image is performed with sub-pixel accuracy, and the registration of the calibration images is performed at least in part based on different objects, determining an object displacement distance in a second coordinate system based on each registered calibration image with the electronic control device, and determining a calibration measure from the travel distances and the object displacement distances for calibrating the coordinate systems with the electronic control device, wherein the calibration measure is a coordinate transformation matrix between the first and the second coordinate system and is determined by solving an overdetermined system of equations, wherein the overdetermined system of equations comprises the determined travel distances, the determined object displacement distances and the coordinate transformation matrix, and wherein the coordinate transformation matrix is determined by solving the overdetermined system of equations using an optimization method which minimizes a quality function of the overdetermined system of equations.