Imaging device

Details Imaging device Imaging device

1999-08-31

2001-06-12

Mack, Ricky (Department: 2873)

Optical: systems and elements

Single channel simultaneously to or from plural channels

By surface composed of lenticular elements

Reexamination Certificate

active

06246525

ABSTRACT:

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an imaging device and more particularly to an imaging device for imaging a sample carrier carrying an imaging object for measuring the density or color thereof or detecting the existence of light emission thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the biochemistry and molecular biology fields, it is common practice to house imaging objects
200
, which are samples, in each well
110
of a micro-titer plate
100
as shown in
FIG. 2
, and to set them in an imaging device having an imaging means
10
as shown in FIG.
5
. The whole micro-titer plate
100
is imaged at one time, and the density and color of each imaging object
200
contained in each well
110
, or the intensity of chemiluminescence or fluorescence, is measured on the basis of this picked-up image.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Meanwhile, as shown in the drawing, each well
110
of the micro-titer plate
100
has a predetermined depth in the thickness direction (depth direction) of the micro-titer plate
100
and on the other hand, the imaging means
10
of the imaging device is opposite to the plate
100
at a fixed image angle, so that with respect to the well
110
corresponding to the neighborhood of the optical axis X of the imaging means
10
, optical information passing the optical path open through from the upper opening of the well
110
to the bottom is input into the imaging means
10
(see FIG.
6
A). Therefore, the depth of the imaging object
200
stored in the well
110
becomes the optical path length in the imaging object
200
as it is and it can be measured accurately on the basis of the information input into this imaging means
10
. However, with respect to the well
110
at the edge of the plate
100
, optical information passing the optical path open through from the upper opening of the well
110
to the bottom is not input into the imaging means
10
due to parallax (see FIG.
6
B). Therefore, with respect to the well
110
at the edge of the plate
100
, a problem arises that it cannot be measured accurately on the basis of the information input into this imaging means
10
.
This problem arises not only in the case of the aforementioned image determination using the micro-titer plate but also in the case of image determination of a sample carrier executing electrophoresis for an imaging object using gel with a certain thickness (for example, a thickness of 5 mm or more) and a Petridish for culture. In this case, the imaging object is immersed in the thickness direction of the gel, so that the immersed portion of the imaging object at the edge of the sample carrier is observed as a blot due to the parallax.
Therefore, to eliminate such a parallax effect, it may be considered to install a telecentric lens comprising a plurality of lenses and apertures between the imaging means and the sample carrier of the micro-titer plate.
However, the constitution of the telecentric lens is large-scale and expensive, so that an increase in cost of the imaging device to be used is inevitable.
The present invention was developed with the foregoing in view and is intended to provide an imaging device for eliminating the parallax effect by controlling an increase in cost and picking up an image for highly accurate image determination.
The imaging device of the present invention has a single lens arrangement for eliminating the parallax between the imaging means and an imaging object having a thickness.
Namely, the imaging device of the present invention is an imaging device for imaging a sample carrier having many imaging objects having the depth in the same direction arranged on a plane perpendicular to the aforementioned direction, by an imaging means installed at a distance from the sample carrier, wherein a single lens having refractive force dependent upon the distance between the sample carrier and the imaging means is arranged at a location in the neighborhood of the sample carrier between the sample carrier and the imaging means, so that light traveling in almost the same direction as the aforementioned direction from the sample carrier focuses on the image forming surface of the imaging means.
In this case, as a single lens, it is desirable to use a Fresnel lens with a thin thickness which is low in cost.
As a sample carrier, a micro-titer plate or a gel with a thickness of about 3 mm or more can be used. Also, a Petridish for culture can be used.
According to the imaging device of the present invention, a single lens having refractive force dependent upon the distance between the sample carrier and the imaging means, which is arranged in the neighborhood of the sample carrier between the sample carrier and the imaging means so that light traveling in almost the same direction as the depth direction of an imaging object from the sample carrier focuses on the image forming surface of the imaging means, performs an action for forming an image of an imaging object existing at an infinite distance on the imaging means (eliminates the parallax). Therefore, even for an imaging object at the edge of the sample carrier, optical information passing the whole in the direction of the depth of the object can be imaged. Therefore, according to information input in the imaging means like this, accurate image determination can be carried out. Moreover, with respect to the aforementioned single lens, lenses sufficiently low in cost compared with a telecentric lens are in wide use and an increase in cost of the overall imaging device can be controlled. If a Fresnel lens is used as a single lens, the lens thickness can also be controlled, so that the degree of freedom with respect to arrangement in the device can also be enlarged.


REFERENCES:
patent: 3996599 (1976-12-01), King
patent: 4481522 (1984-11-01), Jastrzebski et al.
patent: 5417494 (1995-05-01), Kempa et al.

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