US 12,282,148 B2
Magnified observation apparatus, magnified observation method, and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium or storage device
Suguru Sekiya, Osaka (JP); and Shingo Matsumura, Osaka (JP)
Assigned to KEYENCE CORPORATION, Osaka (JP)
Filed by Keyence Corporation, Osaka (JP)
Filed on Jan. 13, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/574,589.
Claims priority of application No. 2021-025732 (JP), filed on Feb. 19, 2021.
Prior Publication US 2022/0269061 A1, Aug. 25, 2022
Int. Cl. G02B 21/36 (2006.01); G02B 7/09 (2021.01); G02B 21/02 (2006.01); G02B 21/06 (2006.01); G02B 21/24 (2006.01); G06V 10/141 (2022.01); G06V 10/22 (2022.01); G06V 10/60 (2022.01); H05B 47/155 (2020.01); H05B 47/16 (2020.01)
CPC G02B 21/367 (2013.01) [G02B 7/09 (2013.01); G02B 21/025 (2013.01); G02B 21/06 (2013.01); G02B 21/241 (2013.01); G06V 10/141 (2022.01); G06V 10/235 (2022.01); G06V 10/60 (2022.01); H05B 47/155 (2020.01); H05B 47/16 (2020.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A magnified observation apparatus comprising:
a stage to hold an observation object thereon;
an objective lens adaptive to face the observation object;
an illuminator configured to change between different illumination directions of light incident on the observation object, the illuminator irradiating the observation object with one of
a first lighting pattern in which the observation object is irradiated with the different illumination directions of light one after another, and
a second lighting pattern in which the observation object is irradiated with at least one of the different illumination directions, which are included in the first lighting pattern;
a camera configured to capture an image of the observation object through the objective lens to generate image data representing the image;
a display controller configured to control a display that displays the image of the observation object based on the image data generated by the camera;
a feature quantity calculator configured to calculate feature quantities of the image data of the observation object corresponding to the different illumination directions in the first lighting pattern; and
an illumination controller configured to control the illuminator to selectively perform
a first sequence in which the illuminator is operated in the first lighting pattern, and the display is operated to display a live image of the observation object irradiated with the first lighting pattern, and
a second sequence in which the illuminator is operated in the second lighting pattern as at least one of the different illumination directions that is selected based on the feature quantities calculated corresponding to the different illumination directions by the feature quantity calculator, and the display is operated to display an image of the observation object captured when the observation object is irradiated with the second lighting pattern as the at least one of the different illumination directions.