AUTOFOCUS METHOD FOR DIGITIZING A MICROSCOPIC PREPARATION Russian patent published in 2023 - IPC G03B13/36 

FIELD: digital microscopy.

SUBSTANCE: in the method of autofocusing when digitizing a microscopic preparation, which includes moving the microscope object table along the vertical Z axis to a position corresponding to the maximum value of image sharpness of the sample of the microscopic preparation, autofocusing is carried out in two stages. The first stage includes continuous movement of the object table with the sample along the Z axis towards the microscope objective at the maximum speed by a given value, then the object table is continuously moved away from the lens at a given speed while obtaining images, calculating the sharpness S of the resulting images, assigning object table coordinates along the Z axis and the calculated sharpness values for the obtained images during the movement of the object table. The sharpness values S and coordinates along the Z axis for all images are sent to the memory, the focused image is fixed by selecting the coordinate of the object table with the sample on the Z axis, which satisfies the condition under which the sharpness decreases during the passage of the object table along the specified range along the Z axis on three images in a row before the “peak” of sharpness and after the “peak” of sharpness. Moreover, if the specified condition is met, the first stage of autofocusing is considered complete, and the movement of the object table with the sample is stopped before reaching the end of the specified range, and if the specified condition is not met, the second stage is carried out with an increased focusing range, the speed of movement of the object table and a given distance to obtain a focused image while simultaneously performing image sharpening calculations.

EFFECT: increased speed of autofocusing.

1 cl, 6 dwg