Microscope apparatus

Abstract

A microscope apparatus including: an illumination optical system that radiates activation light to activate some of fluorescent materials included in a sample and excitation light to excite at least some of the activated fluorescent materials; an image forming optical system that: has an objective lens and an astigmatic optical system that generates astigmatism to at least part of fluorescence from the fluorescent materials; and forms an image of the fluorescence; an image-capturing unit that captures an image formed by the image forming optical system; a drive unit that moves an image-capturing position in the sample along an optical axis-direction of the objective lens; and a control unit, wherein the control unit causes the image-capturing unit to capture images in a plurality of numbers of frames respectively at a first image-capturing position and at a second image-capturing position different from the first image-capturing position.

What is claimed is: 
     
         1 . A microscope apparatus comprising:
 an illumination optical system that radiates activation light to activate some of fluorescent materials included in a sample and excitation light to excite at least some of the activated fluorescent materials;   an image forming optical system that: has an objective lens and an astigmatic optical system that generates astigmatism to at least part of fluorescence from the fluorescent materials; and forms an image of the fluorescence;   an image-capturing unit that captures an image formed by the image forming optical system;   a drive unit that moves an image-capturing position in the sample along an optical axis-direction of the objective lens; and   a control unit, wherein   the control unit causes the image-capturing unit to capture images in a plurality of numbers of frames respectively at a first image-capturing position and at a second image-capturing position different from the first image-capturing position.   
     
     
         2 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the control unit causes the image-capturing unit to capture images in a first number of frames at the first image-capturing position and capture images in a second number of frames different from the first number of frames at the second image-capturing position. 
     
     
         3 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the drive unit moves the image-capturing position by moving at least one of a stage holding the sample and the objective lens in the optical axis-direction of the objective lens. 
     
     
         4 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 3 , wherein if a distance between the second image-capturing position and the stage is longer than a distance between the first image-capturing position and the stage, a number of frames for the second image-capturing position is larger than a number of frames for the first image-capturing position. 
     
     
         5 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 1 , further comprising a display apparatus, wherein
 the control unit:
 generates a three-dimensional image at the first image-capturing position based on a result of image-capturing at the first image-capturing position obtained through the image-capturing in the plurality of numbers of frames, 
 generates a three-dimensional image at the second image-capturing position based on a result of image-capturing at the second image-capturing position obtained through the image-capturing in the plurality of numbers of frames, and 
 displays, on the display apparatus, the three-dimensional image captured at the first image-capturing position and the three-dimensional image captured at the second image-capturing position in different display colors. 
   
     
     
         6 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the control unit performs multiple times an image-capturing action of capturing images at the first image-capturing position and of capturing images at the second image-capturing position. 
     
     
         7 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 6 , further comprising a display apparatus, wherein
 the control unit:
 generates a three-dimensional image at the first image-capturing position based on a result of image-capturing at the first image-capturing position obtained through the image-capturing action performed multiple times, 
 generates a three-dimensional image at the second image-capturing position based on a result of image-capturing at the second image-capturing position obtained through the image-capturing action performed multiple times, and 
 displays, on the display apparatus, the three-dimensional image captured at the first image-capturing position and the three-dimensional image captured at the second image-capturing position in different display colors. 
   
     
     
         8 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 5 , wherein if the three-dimensional image captured at the first image-capturing position and the three-dimensional image captured at the second image-capturing position are displayed on the display apparatus in different display colors, the control unit displays only a specified region in the optical axis-direction of the objective lens. 
     
     
         9 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 5 , wherein if the three-dimensional image captured at the first image-capturing position and the three-dimensional image captured at the second image-capturing position are displayed on the display apparatus in different display colors, the control unit displays only an overlapping region. 
     
     
         10 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 6 , further comprising a display apparatus, wherein
 a three-dimensional image for each image-capturing action is generated based on results of image-capturing at the first image-capturing position and the second image-capturing position obtained through each image-capturing action, and   the three-dimensional image for each image-capturing action is displayed on the display apparatus in a different display color from those for three-dimensional images for other image-capturing actions.   
     
     
         11 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 7 , further comprising a display apparatus, wherein
 the control unit:
 generates a three-dimensional image at the first image-capturing position based on a result of image-capturing at the first image-capturing position obtained through the image-capturing action performed multiple times, 
 generates a three-dimensional image at the second image-capturing position based on a result of image-capturing at the second image-capturing position obtained through the image-capturing action performed multiple times, 
 generates a three-dimensional image for each image-capturing action based on results of image-capturing at the first image-capturing position and the second image-capturing position obtained through each image-capturing action and 
 switches between: a first display mode in which the three-dimensional image captured at the first image-capturing position and the three-dimensional image captured at the second image-capturing position are displayed on the display apparatus in different display colors; and a second display mode in which the three-dimensional image for each image-capturing action is displayed on the display apparatus in a different display color from those for three-dimensional images for other image-capturing actions. 
   
     
     
         12 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 5 , wherein the three-dimensional image includes three-dimensional position information about the fluorescent materials. 
     
     
         13 . The microscope apparatus according to  claim 1 , wherein the control unit calculates three-dimensional position information about the fluorescent materials based on the astigmatism. 
     
     
         14 . An image-capturing method performed at a microscope apparatus having:
 an illumination optical system that radiates activation light to activate some of fluorescent materials included in a sample and excitation light to excite at least some of the activated fluorescent materials;   an image forming optical system that: has an objective lens and an astigmatic optical system that generates astigmatism to at least part of fluorescence from the fluorescent materials; and forms an image of the fluorescence;   an image-capturing unit that captures an image formed by the image forming optical system; and   a drive unit that moves an image-capturing position in the sample along an optical axis-direction of the objective lens, the image-capturing method comprising:   causing the image-capturing unit to capture images in a plurality of numbers of frames respectively at a first image-capturing position and at a second image-capturing position different from the first image-capturing position.   
     
     
         15 . A computer program product having computer instructions that: are recorded on a computer readable medium; and are executed by a computer that controls a microscope apparatus having:
 an illumination optical system that radiates activation light to activate some of fluorescent materials included in a sample and excitation light to excite at least some of the activated fluorescent materials;   an image forming optical system that: has an objective lens and an astigmatic optical system that generates astigmatism to at least part of fluorescence from the fluorescent materials; and forms an image of the fluorescence;   an image-capturing unit that captures an image formed by the image forming optical system; and   a drive unit that moves an image-capturing position in the sample along an optical axis-direction of the objective lens, the computer instructions, upon being executed by the computer, enabling the computer to perform operations comprising:   executing a procedure of causing the image-capturing unit to capture images in a plurality of numbers of frames respectively at a first image-capturing position and at a second image-capturing position different from the first image-capturing position.