JPH09197287A - Motor-driven microscope - Google Patents

Abstract

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To easily position a sample in a specified observation visual field as to a laser microscope or optical microscope with high magnifications. SOLUTION: This microscope which has a motor-driven stage 17 and also has a display means 25 for projecting video of the observation visual field has a position input means 27 which can specify and input a position on the screen of the display means 25 and also has a control means 29 which controls the movement of the stage according to the position specified on the display screen by the position input means 27.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a microscope having a motorized stage, and more particularly to a motorized microscope which displays an observation field of view on a monitor screen such as a CRT.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Nowadays, even in a general optical microscope, there is a type in which a stage on which a sample or a sample is placed is an electric stage and a movement operation of the stage is controlled by a joystick. Further, a revolver equipped with an objective lens is used as an electric revolver, and a microscope in which the objective lens can be exchanged by a switch operation is also used.

In these electric microscopes provided with an electric stage and an electric revolver, the observation field of view of the microscope is CR.
There is one that is displayed on a monitor screen such as T so that a plurality of people can observe and study. Further, today, there is a microscope called a laser microscope, which irradiates a sample with a laser beam to cause the sample to emit light, forms a video signal by light from the sample, and projects a sample image on a monitor screen.

This laser microscope moves a laser beam so as to scan the sample when the sample is irradiated with the laser beam. Then, the light such as fluorescence emitted from the sample is converted into an electric signal by the photoelectric conversion means. In this way, the photoelectric conversion means forms a luminance signal in accordance with the irradiation position of the laser beam, and further, the horizontal and vertical synchronizing signals are combined with the luminance signal to form a video signal. The video signal enables the video of the sample to be displayed on a monitor screen such as a CRT.

This laser microscope changes the angle at which the light from the laser light source is reflected by the XY scanning mirror. That is, the sample is irradiated with the laser beam from the laser light source by scanning the required portion of the electric stage in the X and Y directions by the reflected light from the XY scanning mirror. The beam irradiation position is moved at high speed by swinging the XY scanning mirror at high speed. However, in a laser microscope, it takes several seconds to several tens of seconds to form a video signal for one screen. Therefore, by temporarily storing the data of the video signal in the memory and reading the video signal from the memory at the video rate, the video is displayed on the monitor screen of the CRT or the like.

In an electric microscope such as an electric microscope in an optical microscope or a laser microscope using a laser light source, a sample image may be displayed on the monitor screen from the beginning when the observation field of view is displayed on the monitor screen. In this case, the observation range is often changed by moving the stage while observing the sample image on the monitor screen. Further, in the optical microscope, after the observation range is specified by using the eyepiece lens, the image of the observation visual field may be displayed on the monitor screen.

[0007]

As described above, in the electric microscope having the monitor screen for displaying the observation visual field as the display means, the observation position is determined by the eyepiece and the visual field is displayed on the monitor screen. The range displayed on the monitor screen may deviate. Therefore, when displaying the sample image on the monitor screen, it may be necessary to readjust the position of the stage while observing the sample image on the monitor screen.

Further, when deciding the field of view while observing the sample or sample with the eyepiece by moving the stage manually or electrically, when moving the sample or sample together with the stage at a high magnification, the points necessary for observation are required. In many cases, it was difficult to correctly align with the center of the visual field. Then, in the laser microscope, it takes at least several seconds until an image of a new observation region of the sample is displayed by moving the stage. Therefore, there is a drawback that it takes time and labor to determine an appropriate position.

Further, in the laser microscope, when the stage is moved to position the sample at an appropriate position in the observation field of view, the observation main part may be deviated from the image displayed on the monitor screen. In this case, it is necessary to move the stage again to capture an image again, and a laser beam is emitted for positioning to capture an image.
However, repeated irradiation with the laser beam may damage the sample or the sample, and it may be difficult to appropriately observe a necessary portion.

The present invention eliminates such drawbacks and provides a microscope in which it is easy to determine the position of the stage for displaying an appropriate observation range on the monitor screen.

[0011]

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The present invention is a microscope having a motorized stage and display means for displaying an image of an observation field of view, and a position on the display means for designating and inputting a position on the display screen. The electric microscope has an input unit and a control unit that controls the movement of the stage according to the designated position on the display screen input to the position input unit.

As described above, the electric microscope is provided with the position input means for designating and inputting the position on the display screen and the control means for moving the stage according to the position designated on the display screen. It is a thing. Therefore, the movement of the stage can be controlled by designating a specific position on the display screen of the display means. Further, the control means detects the magnification of the microscope, converts the distance and direction between the two positions specified by the position input means into the distance and direction on the stage, and inputs them to the position input means. The stage drive means is controlled so as to move the stage by calculating the moving direction and the moving distance of the electric stage according to the distance and the direction of moving the position to the other position on the display screen.

As described above, since the control means converts the position of the stage corresponding to the position designated on the screen to move the stage, the alignment of the stage becomes easy. Furthermore, the control means sets one of the two points specified by the position input means as the center of the display screen, and determines the distance between the designated position input on the display screen and the center position of the display screen on the electric stage. In some cases, the electric stage may be moved according to the distance and direction of movement on the display screen.

As described above, since the position of the stage corresponding to the position designated on the screen is moved to the center of the observation visual field corresponding to the center of the display screen, the stage to be aligned with the observation site of the sample is adjusted. Positioning becomes reliable and extremely easy. Further, a touch panel may be used as the position input means, and the position input means may be provided on the display screen of the display means.

By thus providing the touch panel as the position input means on the display screen of the display means, it becomes extremely easy to specify a specific position of the video image displayed on the display screen. Then, the function switches may be displayed on the display screen of the display unit, and the operation of each function switch may be detected by the control unit to control each operation of the microscope.

In this case, the operation display of the microscope can be concentrated on the display means. Furthermore, various operations of the microscope can be controlled by the position input means in conjunction with the operation of the electric stage. A function switch may be formed on a part of the touch panel that is the position input means.

Thus, by forming a function switch in a part of the position input means, the operation of the microscope can be concentrated on the display means.

[0018]

BEST MODE FOR CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION As an embodiment of the present invention, there is a laser microscope provided with a computer as a control means. As shown in FIG. 1, this laser microscope includes a laser light source 11 for irradiating a sample 31 with a laser beam.
It has. Further, the beam from the laser light source 11 is sent to the XY scanning mirror 13 and the XY scanning mirror 13
Light from the beam splitter to send to the image signal forming means 23
With 12. The XY scanning mirror 13 has a mirror that is swung by the scanning mirror driving means 14 about the X direction and a mirror that is swung by the scanning mirror driving means 14 about the Y direction. Therefore,
When the laser beam from the beam splitter 12 is reflected, the XY scanning mirror 13 changes the reflection direction of the beam so as to vibrate in the X direction and the Y direction at a high speed, and the predetermined range on the stage is changed in the X direction and the Y direction. The stage is irradiated with a laser beam so that the stage is scanned.

Between the XY scanning mirror 13 and the stage, an objective lens 15 that can be exchanged by an electric revolver driving means 16 is provided. Therefore, laser light source
The laser beam emitted from 11 is the beam splitter.
The light is reflected by 12, and further transmitted through the objective lens 15 while being changed in direction by the XY scanning mirror 13, and illuminated so as to scan a predetermined range of the sample 31.

The specimen 31 used is one that is dyed with an appropriate fluorescent dye, and the irradiation position of the beam emits light such as fluorescence. The light emitted from the sample 31 returns to the beam splitter 12 via the objective lens 15 and the XY scanning mirror 13, passes through the beam splitter 12, and is coupled by the imaging optical system 21 to the light receiving portion of the video signal forming means 23. To be imaged.

As the video signal forming means 23, a photoelectric converter such as a photomultiplier tube or a solid-state image pickup device and a signal processing circuit are used. That is, a photoelectric converter such as a photomultiplier tube converts the light input to the light receiving portion via the imaging optical system 21 into a luminance signal. Further, the signal processing circuit synthesizes the horizontal synchronizing signal and the vertical synchronizing signal with the luminance signal output from the photoelectric converter in accordance with the X-direction vibration speed and the Y-direction vibration speed of the XY scanning mirror 13. Then, the luminance signal, which has been converted into a video signal by synthesizing the synchronization signals, is stored in the memory built in the video signal forming means 23.
It should be noted that the video signal for one screen is recorded in the memory by one operation. Further, in this video signal forming means 23,
By reading the contents of the memory 30 times per second,
It is assumed that it is possible to output a video signal at a video rate. Therefore, in this laser microscope, although it takes about 1 second to record a video signal for one screen, the video signal forming means 23 outputs a video signal of a video rate that can be displayed on a normal CRT. Is what you can do.

Further, this electric microscope has a video signal forming means.
It has a display means 25 such as a CRT for displaying an image in the beam scanning range on the stage based on the image signal from 23. The display unit of the display unit 25 is provided with a position input unit such as a touch panel 27. Therefore, the position input means can specify a predetermined position on the display screen, which is the display unit, and input it to the control means 29.

Further, in this electric microscope, the electric field stage 17 is moved in parallel in the X and Y directions by the stage driving means 18 so that the observation visual field can be changed and adjusted. Further, this electric microscope has a scanning mirror driving means 14
Thus, the swing width of the XY scanning mirror 13 can be changed. Therefore, the scanning range on the stage can be enlarged or reduced to switch the observation magnification. The objective lens 15 is driven by the electric revolver driving means 16.
It is possible to replace the
Furthermore, the observation magnification can be changed.

Then, control means 29 using a computer
Is to read the number of the objective lens 15, that is, the optical magnification from the electric revolver driving means 16. Furthermore,
The control means 29 is from the scanning mirror driving means 14 to the XY scanning mirror.
It also reads the 13 swing ranges. Further, the control means 29 reads the coordinates of the pressing point of the touch panel 27 as the position input means attached to the display means 25 and outputs a control signal to the stage drive means 18 based on the coordinate values.

That is, the control means 29 uses the optical magnification read from the electric revolver driving means 16 and the swing range of the XY scanning mirror 13 read from the scanning mirror driving means 14 to determine the laser beam on the electric stage 17. The scanning range is calculated. Further, the magnification of the image displayed on the monitor screen is also calculated from the size of the display screen of the display means and the size of the touch panel 27 used as the position input means. Furthermore, when the touch panel 27 as the position input means is pressed, the coordinates of the pressing point are detected, and the X-direction distance and the Y-direction distance from this pressing point to the center of the touch panel 27 are determined by the size and position of the sensor of the touch panel 27. calculate. The length on the stage corresponding to the X-direction distance from the pressing point of the touch panel 27 to the center based on the magnification, and the length on the stage corresponding to the Y-direction distance from the pressing point of the touch panel 27 to the center To calculate. Further, a control signal for moving the electric stage 17 in the X direction and the Y direction by the calculated length on the stage is output to the stage driving means 18.

Thus, the control means 29 is a touch panel.
The distance and direction between the two points of the pressing point of 27 and the center of the touch panel 27 are obtained, and this distance is converted to the length on the stage according to the magnification of the microscope. Then, the control means 29 is a stage driving means in accordance with the distance and direction on the stage according to the distance and direction between the two points on the touch panel 27.
It outputs a control signal for moving the stage to 18.

Therefore, when a desired point on the screen is pressed on the display screen displaying the image of the sample 31, the control means 29 moves the stage so that the image of the pressed point is located at the center of the screen. The direction and distance can be calculated automatically, and the movement of the electric stage can be controlled by the control means 29. In this way, when aligning the positions of the stages, if a portion to be positioned at the center on the monitor screen is indicated after forming a video signal for one screen, the control means 29
Calculates the X-direction moving distance and the Y-direction moving distance of the electric stage 17 necessary to position the part in the center of the observation visual field, and move the electric stage 17 by the moving distance calculated by the stage driving means 18. You will be able to Therefore, after the motorized stage 17 is accurately moved by a predetermined direction and distance, a video signal for one screen can be formed again and displayed on the display means 25 for observation. That is, the sample 31 can be moved so as to be accurately positioned at a predetermined position in the observation visual field without repeatedly irradiating the sample 31 with the laser beam. Therefore, the specimen
It will be possible to reduce the discoloration and fatigue of 31 and perform effective observation.

The computer used as the control means 29 includes:
Not only when converting the direction and distance between the pressed point on the touch panel 27 and the center of the touch panel 27 into the direction and distance on the stage, but also the direction and distance between the two pressed points on the touch panel 27 are converted to the direction and distance on the stage. Then, the electric stage may be moved so that the image of the first pressing point moves to the second pressing point.

Further, as another embodiment, a touch panel 27 slightly larger than the size of the display screen may be used as the touch panel 27. In this case, the touch panel 27, which is a position input means, is attached to the display means 25 so that a part of the touch panel 27 is located outside the display screen. Then, the sensor of the touch panel 27 located outside the display screen is divided into a plurality of blocks having a predetermined size. Then, when the sensor of a specific block among the plurality of blocks is pressed, the control means 29 outputs a switching control signal for instructing the electric revolver driving means 16 to switch the lens.
Further, when the sensor of another block is pressed, the scanning mirror driving means 14 is made to output a magnification control signal for changing the driving range of the XY scanning mirror 13.

Further, when a sensor of another block is pressed, two pressing points on the display screen of the touch panel 27 are detected and the coordinates of the first pressing point are moved to the coordinates of the second pressing point. The movement control may be switched so that the movement amount of 17 is calculated and a control signal for moving the electric stage 17 is output to the stage driving means 18.

When the electric stage 17 is rotatable about the center of the observation field, the rotation of the electric stage 17 can be controlled by the function switch. Then, when rotating the electric stage 17, this rotation angle is also read into the control means 29,
When moving a designated point on the touch panel 27 to the center of the screen, or when moving the first pressing point to the second pressing point, it is used to calculate the X-direction moving amount and the Y-direction moving amount of the electric stage 17. Needless to say.

Thus, by forming a function switch corresponding to the operation switch of the microscope on a part of the touch panel 27, the operation of the microscope can be concentrated on the display means 25, and the handling of the microscope is further facilitated. You can The position input means is not limited to the touch panel 27, and a light pen or the like may be used. Also in this case, the position coordinates on the screen can be detected by bringing the light pen into contact with the display screen, and like the touch panel 27, the electric stage 17 and the like can be controlled. In addition, a position sensor that detects a fingertip or an instrument that contacts or presses the display screen may be used, and a sensor that detects an operation point on the display screen may be provided in the display unit 25.

Also in these cases, the observation field of view is not displayed on the entire surface of the display screen of the display means 25.
The function switch may be displayed as an icon on a part of the display screen. That is, the display section of the function switch may be provided on the lower side of the screen or the like. Further, using a mouse as a position input means, a cursor is synthesized with an image in the observation field of view of the microscope by the image signal, and the display means
A cursor may be displayed on the display screen at 25.
In this case, it is possible to specify the position with the mouse while confirming the specified position on the display screen with the cursor. Incidentally, not only the field of view of the microscope but also function switches and the like may be displayed as icons on the display screen.

In the above embodiment, a laser microscope is used. However, in various microscopes such as an ordinary optical microscope, a video signal forming means 23 such as a two-dimensional solid-state imaging device is used to form a video signal of an observation visual field, and C
Any microscope can be used as long as it is a microscope for observing the sample 31 such as a sample using the display means 25 such as RT. That is, in these microscopes, a position input means capable of specifying and inputting a position on the display screen by designating a predetermined position on the display screen of the display means, and a stage corresponding to the designated position of the display screen. And a control means for moving the electric motor.

Therefore, like the laser microscope, by mounting the position input means on the display screen of the display means 25, the movement of the electric stage 17 in the XY directions can be controlled by the control means 29. Further, in the optical microscope, a function switch for exchanging the objective lens 15 and controlling the distance between the stage and the lens can be formed in the position input means or the like.

[0036]

The invention described in claim 1 corresponds to a position input means capable of specifying and inputting a position on the display screen by specifying a predetermined position on the display screen, and a specified position on the display screen. The electric microscope is provided with a control means for moving the stage. Therefore, the movement of the stage can be controlled by designating a specific position on the display screen of the display means, which facilitates the operation of the stage.

Further, in the laser microscope, the operations such as the position alignment of the stage are facilitated, and the image signal of the observation main part can be formed quickly. Therefore, it is possible to reduce damage to the sample and the sample, and easily perform appropriate observation and examination. In the invention described in claim 2, the control means detects the magnification of the microscope, and the distance and direction between the two positions specified by the position input means are converted into the distance and direction on the stage to input the position. The stage is moved in a distance and a direction in which one position input to the means is moved to the other position on the display screen.

Therefore, by instructing the position on the display screen, the movement of the stage can be controlled and the positioning of the stage can be facilitated. Further, in the invention described in claim 3, the control means sets one of the two points specified by the position input means as the center of the display screen, and the designated position input on the display screen and the center position of the display screen. Is converted into a distance on the electric stage, and the electric stage is moved according to the distance and the direction.

Therefore, by pointing the portion of the specimen to be observed on the screen, it becomes extremely easy and accurate to align the portion to be observed with the center of the observation visual field. The invention described in claim 4 has the position input means on the display screen of the display means.

Therefore, by simply pressing or touching a specific image position on the display screen, the stage is moved by a desired amount, and the image at the pressed position is moved to a predetermined position to move the displayed image. You can or,
In the invention described in claim 5, the function switch is displayed on a part of the display means.

Therefore, with this function switch, the operation display of the microscope can be concentrated on the display screen, and the microscope can be handled more easily. Further, the invention according to claim 6 forms a function switch in a part of the position input means. Therefore, by allocating the operation of the microscope to this function switch, the operation of the microscope can be concentrated on the display means and the handling of the microscope can be facilitated.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an outline of an embodiment of an electric microscope according to the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

11 Laser Light Source 12 Beam Splitter 13 XY Scanning Mirror 14 Scanning Mirror Driving Means 15 Objective Lens 16 Electric Revolver Driving Means 17 Electric Stage 18 Stage Driving Means 21 Imaging Optical System 23 Image Signal Forming Means 25 Display Means 27 Touch Panels 29 Control Means

Claims (6)

[Claims] 1. A microscope having a motorized stage and display means for displaying an image of an observation field of view, which has position input means capable of designating and inputting a position on the display screen of the display means. An electric microscope comprising: a control unit that controls the movement of the electric stage according to a designated position on the display screen designated by the position input unit. 2. The control means detects the magnification of the microscope and converts the distance and direction between the two positions specified by the position input means into the distance and direction on the electric stage, Characterized in that the electric stage is moved by calculating a moving direction and a moving distance of the electric stage corresponding to a distance and a direction for moving one position input to the position input means to the other position on the display screen. Claim 1
The electric microscope described in 1. 3. The control means fixes one of the two positions specified by the position input means as the center of the display screen, and the specified position on the display screen input to the position input means and the specified position on the display screen. The electric microscope according to claim 2, wherein the electric stage is moved according to a distance and a direction in which a distance from the center of the display screen is converted into a distance on the electric stage. 4. The electric microscope according to claim 1, further comprising a touch panel as the position input unit on a display screen of the display unit. 5. The function switch is displayed on a part of a display screen of the display unit, and the control unit detects the operation of each function switch to control each operation of the microscope. Item 4. The electric microscope according to any one of items 4. 6. The electric microscope according to claim 4, wherein a function switch is formed on a part of the touch panel that is the position input means.