AUTOFOCUS is a computer program for use in a control system that automatically adjusts the position of an instrument arm that carries a microscope equipped with an electronic camera. In the original intended application of AUTOFOCUS, the imaging microscope would be carried by an exploratory robotic vehicle on a remote planet, but AUTOFOCUS could also be adapted to similar applications on Earth. Initially control software other than AUTOFOCUS brings the microscope to a position above a target to be imaged. Then the instrument arm is moved to lower the microscope toward the target: nominally, the target is approached from a starting distance of 3 cm in 10 steps of 3 mm each. After each step, the image in the camera is subjected to a wavelet transform, which is used to evaluate the texture in the image at multiple scales to determine whether and by how much the microscope is approaching focus. A focus measure is derived from the transform and used to guide the arm to bring the microscope to the focal height. When the analysis reveals that the microscope is in focus, image data are recorded and transmitted.
Automatic Focus Adjustment of a Microscope
2005-04-01
Miscellaneous
No indication
English
SOLUTIONS - Software - Automatic Focus Adjustment of a Microscope
Online Contents | 2005
AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENT DEVICE, AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENT SYSTEM, AND AUTOMATIC ADJUSTMENT METHOD
European Patent Office | 2015
|Focus adjustment device for small satellite and focus adjustment method using the same
European Patent Office | 2019
|Sharp-Focus Composite Microscope Imaging by Computer
NTRS | 1983
|