Spectral imaging system
US6690466B2 · kind B2 · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Aug 2, 2001 |
| Grant date | Feb 10, 2004 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jan 22, 2022 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC G)Physics
- CPC primaryG01J2003/467
- WIPO fieldMeasurement
- WIPO sectorInstruments
Abstract
An imaging system is disclosed comprising an illuminator which produces illumination of any desired pure wavelength or of any selected mixture of pure wavelengths simultaneously, which illuminates a sample without spatio-spectral artifacts using illumination optics designed for that purpose; imaging optics, which form an image of the sample at a detector or viewing port; and a detector. This enables imaging the complete spectral image cube for a sample by taking sequential images while illuminating with a series of pure wavelengths, with greater ease and economy than by means of tunable filters, interferometers and the like. It further enables imaging while the sample is illuminated with a precisely controlled mixture of illuminant wavelengths, so that the image presented to the detector is a linear superposition of the sample properties at many wavelengths. This enables taking images of a sample' that directly measure the weighted spectral properties such as projection pursuit vectors, principal components, and the like. Data acquisition is enormously simplified, and speed is increased by one to two orders of magnitude over existing techniques. This is of great benefit in patholog…
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.