US-12619060-B2 - Microscope system and corresponding method

US12619060B2US 12619060 B2US12619060 B2US 12619060B2US-12619060-B2

Abstract

Examples relate to a microscope system, such as a surgical microscope system, and to a corresponding method. The microscope system ( 100 ) comprises a microscope ( 120 ) with a first optical imaging sensor ( 122 ) for generating first imaging sensor data based on light having a first wavelength spectrum, a second optical imaging sensor ( 124 ) for generating second imaging sensor data based on light having a second wavelength spectrum, and a multispectral iris ( 130 ), configured to provide an opening with a first numerical aperture for the light having the first wavelength spectrum and an opening with a second numerical aperture for the light having the second wavelength spectrum, with the first numerical aperture being different from the second numerical aperture. The microscope system comprises one or more processors ( 114 ), configured to generate a composite image based on the first imaging sensor data and based on the second imaging sensor data.

Inventors

George Themelis

Assignees

LEICA INSTRUMENTS (SINGAPORE) PTE. LTD.

Dates

Publication Date: 20260505
Application Date: 20221221
Priority Date: 20211221

Claims (17)

1 . A microscope system comprising: a microscope comprising: a first optical imaging sensor for generating first imaging sensor data based on light having a first wavelength spectrum, a second optical imaging sensor for generating second imaging sensor data based on light having a second wavelength spectrum, and a multispectral iris, configured to provide an opening with a first numerical aperture for the light having the first wavelength spectrum and an opening with a second numerical aperture for the light having the second wavelength spectrum, with the first numerical aperture being different from the second numerical aperture; and one or more processors, configured to: generate a composite image based on the first imaging sensor data and based on the second imaging sensor data.
2 . The microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein the first wavelength spectrum is suitable for performing reflectance imaging and wherein the second wavelength spectrum is suitable for performing fluorescence imaging, or wherein the first wavelength spectrum and the second wavelength spectrum are suitable for performing reflectance imaging, or wherein the first wavelength spectrum and the second wavelength spectrum are suitable for performing fluorescence imaging.
3 . The microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein the first numerical aperture is larger than the second numerical aperture.
4 . The microscope system according to claim 3 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine one or more portions of the first imaging sensor data having a higher image sharpness than one or more corresponding portions of the second imaging sensor data, and to generate the composite image with the one or more portions of the first imaging sensor data having the higher image sharpness, with the remainder of the composite image being based on the second imaging sensor data.
5 . The microscope system according to claim 4 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to determine the one or more portions of the first imaging sensor data having a higher image sharpness than the one or more corresponding portions of the second imaging sensor data based on a contrast and/or based on a presence of spatial frequencies above a pre-defined spatial frequency threshold in the respective one or more portions.
6 . The microscope system according to claim 3 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to subdivide the first and second imaging sensor data into two-dimensional grids of blocks of pixels, with each block of pixels comprising a plurality of pixels, and to determine the one or more portions of the first imaging sensor data having a higher image sharpness than corresponding one or more corresponding portions of the second imaging sensor data on a per-block of pixels basis.
7 . The microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to extract spatial features of the second imaging sensor data, and to merge the spatial features from the second imaging sensor data with spatial features and color information of the first imaging sensor data to generate the composite image.
8 . The microscope system according to claim 7 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to process the first and second imaging sensor data in a hue, saturation, and brightness color representation, and to merge a saturation component and a brightness component of the second imaging sensor data with a hue component, a saturation component, and a brightness component of the first imaging sensor data.
9 . The microscope system according to claim 1 , comprising an illumination system, configured to illuminate an object to be imaged using the microscope system, wherein an emission wavelength spectrum of the illumination system comprise the first and the second wavelength spectrum.
10 . The microscope system according to claim 9 , wherein the first wavelength spectrum comprises a first wavelength band that is omitted from the second wavelength spectrum, the second wavelength spectrum comprises a second wavelength band that is omitted from the first wavelength spectrum, and the emission spectrum of the illumination system comprises the first and the second wavelength band.
11 . The microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein the multispectral iris comprises at least one bandpass filtering component configured to block the second wavelength spectrum.
12 . The microscope system according to claim 11 , wherein the multispectral iris comprises a plurality of bandpass filtering components configured to block the second wavelength spectrum, and wherein the microscope comprises a motor for adjusting a positioning of the plurality of bandpass filtering components relative to each other, wherein the one or more processors are configured to control the motor of the microscope system to adjust the position of the plurality of bandpass filtering components relative to each other, thereby adjusting the second numerical aperture.
13 . The microscope system according to claim 12 , wherein the plurality of bandpass filtering components form a diaphragm, or wherein the plurality of bandpass filtering components correspond to two L-shaped bandpass filtering components.
14 . The microscope system according to claim 11 , wherein the multispectral iris comprises a second plurality of components configured to block the first and second wavelength spectrum and wherein the microscope comprises a second motor for adjusting a positioning of the second plurality of components relative to each other, wherein the one or more processors are configured to control the second motor to adjust the position of the second plurality of components relative to each other, thereby adjusting the first numerical aperture.
15 . The microscope system according to claim 1 , wherein the one or more processors are configured to control at least one motor of the microscope system to cause the motor to adjust at least one of the first and the second numerical aperture.
16 . The microscope system according to claim 1 , comprising a filter wheel with a plurality of multispectral irises with fixed numerical apertures.
17 . A method for a microscope system, the method comprising: providing, by a multispectral iris, an opening with a first numerical aperture for light having the first wavelength spectrum and an opening with a second numerical aperture for light having the second wavelength spectrum, with the first numerical aperture being different from the second numerical aperture; generating, by a first optical imaging sensor, first imaging sensor data based on the light having the first wavelength spectrum; generating, by a second optical imaging sensor, second imaging sensor data based on the light having the second wavelength spectrum; and generating a composite image based on the first imaging sensor data and based on the second imaging sensor data.

Description

TECHNICAL FIELD Examples relate to a microscope system, such as a surgical microscope system, and to a corresponding method. BACKGROUND Microscopes, such as microscopes used in surgical microscope system, are optical systems that comprise various optical components. One optical component of a microscope is the iris, which is an adjustable opening that controls how much light reaches the oculars or the optical imaging sensor(s) of the microscope. The opening and closing of the iris influences the resolution and the depth of field of the image. If the opening of the iris is bigger, more light passes through the iris and reaches the oculars or the optical imaging sensor(s). This generally increases the resolution of the view or image, but decreases the depth of field, which is a distance interval, in which the view on the sample being viewed or captured appears sharp. If the opening of the iris is smaller, less light passes through. This increases the depth perception, but there is a decrease in resolution. Typically, surgical microscopes are set with a fixed iris at the “sweet spot” to have an acceptable balance in the inherent trade off. In some surgical microscopes, a technology is used that allows to mitigate the tradeoff between the resolution and the depth of field. The principle is to utilize different iris sizes for left and right eyes on the optical eyepiece. As a result, the user sees two images (right/left) with different qualities, one with higher resolution and the other with higher depth of focus. The brain processes the information from both eyes the user perceives an image having both qualities, i.e., high resolution and large depth of field. There may be a desire for further addressing the tradeoff between resolution and depth of field in microscopy. SUMMARY This desire is addressed by the subject-matter of the independent claims. The concept proposed in the present disclosure is based on the finding that microscopes, and in particular microscopes being used as part of a surgical microscope system, can include multiple optical imaging sensors. For example, in surgical microscopes, separate optical imaging sensors may be used for reflectance imaging and fluorescence imaging. Moreover, the sensor being used for fluorescence imaging is often targeted at one or more fluorescence emission wavelength bands, i.e., a clearly defined subset of the spectrum. A so-called multi-spectral iris, e.g., as shown in European patent EP 3 285 116 B1, can be used to provide differently sized iris openings for two separate optical imaging sensors of the microscopes, by providing differently sized iris openings for two separate wavelength spectra being recorded by the respective optical imaging sensor. Image processing may then be used to combine the imaging sensor data of the two optical imaging sensors, to obtain a composite image that has the increased resolution obtained by the larger iris opening and the increased depth of field obtained by the smaller iris opening. Various examples of the present disclosure relate to a microscope system, such as a surgical microscope system, comprising a microscope and one or more processors. The microscope comprises a first optical imaging sensor for generating first imaging sensor data based on light having a first wavelength spectrum. The microscope further comprises a second optical imaging sensor for generating second imaging sensor data based on light having a second wavelength spectrum. The microscope further comprises a multispectral iris, configured to provide an opening with a first numerical aperture for the light having the first wavelength spectrum and an opening with a second numerical aperture for the light having the second wavelength spectrum. The first numerical aperture is different from the second numerical aperture. The one or more processors are configured to generate a composite image based on the first imaging sensor data and based on the second imaging sensor data. By employing a multispectral sensor, differently sized iris openings may be provided in different wavelength spectra. By using two separate optical imaging sensors for sensing light in the different spectra, two sets of imaging sensor data may be generated-one with increased resolution, and the other with increased depth of field. These two sets of imaging sensor data may then be combined in the composite image to yield a composite image with both increased resolution and increased depth perception. In microscopy, and in particular in surgical microscopy, different optical imaging sensors are used for reflectance imaging and for fluorescence imaging. This inherent separation may be used to implement the proposed concept. For example, the first wavelength spectrum may be suitable for performing reflectance imaging and the second wavelength spectrum may be suitable for performing fluorescence imaging. Alternatively, both the first and second optical imaging sensors may be used for reflectance