| CPC G02B 21/367 (2013.01) [G02B 21/025 (2013.01); G02B 21/244 (2013.01); G02B 21/245 (2013.01); G02B 21/26 (2013.01); G02B 21/368 (2013.01); H04N 23/635 (2023.01); H04N 23/67 (2023.01)] | 20 Claims |
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1. A magnified observation apparatus comprising:
a stage to hold an observation object thereon;
an objective lens adaptive to face the observation object;
a camera configured to capture an image of the observation object through the objective lens and generate image data representing the image;
a display controller configured to control a display to display the image of the observation object based on the image data generated by the camera;
a focusing device configured to adjust image focus by changing a relative distance between a focus position of the objective lens and the observation object by moving at least one of the objective lens and the observation object toward or away from each other in an optical axis of the objective lens to focus an image of the observation object;
an FOV changer configured to change a position of an optical axis of the objective lens relative to the stage to move an observation field-of-view of the camera,
an in-focus degree evaluator configured to calculate in-focus degree feature quantities, which represent in-focus degrees of the image data corresponding to images of the observation object that are generated by the camera; and
a focus sequence executor configured to execute an FOV-moving focus sequence in which the focusing device adjusts a relative distance between the focus position of the objective lens and the observation object in accordance with in-focus degree feature quantities of image data successively calculated by the in-focus degree evaluator corresponding to images of the observation object captured during movement of an observation field-of-view by the FOV changer so that a live image of the observation object is displayed on the display based on image data obtained during the movement of an observation field-of-view by the display controller,
wherein in the FOV-moving focus sequence,
when in-focus degree feature quantities, detected based on image data after movement of the focusing device in one direction, becomes greater than before the movement of the focusing device in the one direction, the movement of the focusing device in the one direction is continued by the focus sequence executor, and
when in-focus degree feature quantities, detected based on image data after the movement of the focusing device in the one direction, becomes smaller than before the movement of the focusing device in the one direction, the movement of the focusing device in the one direction is changed to the opposite direction by the focus sequence executor.
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