Apparatus for and method of fully automatic rapid scanning and digitizing
of an entire microscope sample, or a substantially large portion of a microscope
sample, using a linear array detector synchronized with a positioning stage that
is part of a computer controlled microscope slide scanner. The invention provides
a method for composing the image strips obtained from successive scans of the sample
into a single contiguous digital image. The invention also provides a method for
statically displaying sub-regions of this large digital image at different magnifications,
together with a reduced magnification macro-image of the entire sample. The invention
further provides a method for dynamically displaying, with or without operator
interaction, portions of the contiguous digital image. In one preferred embodiment
of the invention, all elements of the scanner are part of a single-enclosure that
has a primary connection to the Internet or to a local intranet. In this embodiment,
the preferred sample type is a microscope slide and the illumination and imaging
optics are consistent with transmission mode optics optimized for diffraction-limited
digital imaging.
