Image processing apparatus, method of image processing, and image processing system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-2019049897-A1
Application number	US-201716073500-A
Country	US
Kind code	A1
Filing date	Feb 3, 2017
Priority date	Feb 16, 2016
Publication date	Feb 14, 2019
Grant date	—

Abstract

There is provided an image processing apparatus including: a motion detector configured to detect motion of an observation target from a hologram of the observation target; a hologram processing unit configured to extract a portion of the hologram based on a result obtained by detecting the motion of the observation target; and a reconstruction unit configured to reconstruct an image from a portion of the extracted hologram.

First claim

1 . An image processing apparatus comprising
an image processing device configured to: receive a hologram of an observation target containing at least one biological specimen; detect a motion type of a biological specimen from the hologram of the observation target; and extract a portion of the hologram based at least on the detected motion type of the biological specimen.

2 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image processing device is further configured to reconstruct an image of the biological specimen from the portion of the hologram.

3 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the portion of the hologram is extracted based in part on a type of the biological specimen.

4 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the motion type is periodic motion.

5 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image processing device is further configured to receive plural holograms corresponding to frames acquired at different points in time, and to extract one or more portions from the plural holograms based on the detected motion type.

6 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 5 , wherein the image processing device is further configured to extract two holograms from the plural holograms, the two holograms each having an amount of displacement different from each other for the biological specimen.

7 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 6 , wherein the image processing device is further configured to extract a first hologram having a maximum amount of displacement and a second hologram having a minimum amount of displacement for the biological specimen.

8 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 7 , further comprising:
a block matching unit configured to determine whether a first image block in the first hologram having the maximum amount of displacement matches a second image block in the second hologram having the minimum amount of displacement, the second image block corresponding, in position, to the first image block; a motion region specifying unit configured to, when the first image block and the second image block fail to match, specify a region corresponding to the first image block and the second image block as a motion region of the biological specimen; and a ratio calculation unit configured to calculate a ratio of the motion region to a region in which the biological specimen exists.

9 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising:
an existence region specifying unit configured to specify the region in which the biological specimen exists based on a luminance difference in the first image block or the second image block.

10 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 8 , further comprising:
an existence region specifying unit configured to specify the region in which the biological specimen exists based on user operation information.

11 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image processing device is further configured to extract a planar region of the hologram.

12 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 11 , further comprising:
a counter configured to count the biological specimen coincident with a predetermined shape from the hologram, wherein the image processing device is configured to extract the portion of the hologram for the biological specimen having no motion, the biological specimen being coincident with the predetermined shape from a planar region of the hologram, reconstruct an image from the portion of the hologram for the biological specimen having no motion, and wherein the counter excludes a number of unnecessary objects obtained from the reconstructed image from a number of counts.

13 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 11 , wherein the image processing device is configured to extract the portion of the hologram when the detected motion type indicates motion of the biological specimen.

14 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the motion type is random motion.

15 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the image processing device is configured to reconstruct an image of the biological specimen from the portion of the hologram corresponding to only one frame acquired at a predetermined time.

16 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the image processing device is further configured to extract stationary second portion of the hologram that has a stationary motion characteristic and reconstruct an image of a second biological specimen from the second portion of the hologram.

17 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 14 , wherein the image processing device is further configured to extract one or more in-motion holograms from the hologram and reconstruct one or more images from the one or more in-motion holograms.

18 . The image processing apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein the image processing device comprises:
a hologram processor arranged to receive hologram signals from a sensor located near the observation target; and a motion sensor configured to detect motion of the biological specimen from the received hologram signals.

19 . A method of lens free image processing of biological specimens, the method comprising:
receiving a hologram of an observation target containing one or more biological specimens; detecting a motion type of a biological specimen within the hologram of the observation target; extracting a portion of the hologram based on a result of detecting the motion type; and reconstructing an image from the extracted portion of the hologram.

20 . An image processing system comprising:
a light source configured to emit partial coherence light to illuminate an observation target containing at least one biological specimen; an image sensor configured to detect a hologram produced by interference between transmitted light and diffracted light from the observation target; a motion detector configured to detect a motion type of a biological specimen in the hologram; a hologram processing unit configured to extract a portion of the hologram based on a result obtained from detecting the motion type; and a reconstruction unit configured to reconstruct an image from the extracted portion of the hologram.

Assignees

• Sony Corp

Inventors

• Tatsuta Hirokazu
• Kunihiro Takeshi
• Dowaki Suguru
• Matsui Eriko

Classifications

• G01N15/1463

  Physics · mapped topic

• G06T2207/30024

  Cell structures in vitro; Tissue sections in vitro · CPC title

• G06T19/20

  Editing of three-dimensional [3D] images, e.g. changing shapes or colours, aligning objects or positioning parts · CPC title

• G06T2200/04

  involving 3D image data · CPC title

• G06T2207/10056

  Microscopic image · CPC title