Real-time image mosaicing with a hand-held dual-axes confocal microscope

摘要

In recent years there has been growing interest in using confocal microscopy to observe tissue structure and function for in vivo pathology. Although confocal microscopy can provide image resolution that is comparable to histopathology, it can be limited by a small field-of-view as well as a low signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper we show that image mosaicing can enhance confocal microscopy by stitching multiple images together to widen the field-of-view and increase the signal-to-noise ratio. Specifically, we present a real-time image mosaicing system for imaging human skin with a hand-held dual-axes confocal microscope. Our system allows the user to "paint" an image mosaic in real-time and aids navigation by localizing the current view with respect to the larger image map. We first discuss image calibration, then describe an efficient algorithm for real-time image mosaicing, and finally present experimental results obtained in vivo with a dual-axes confocal microscope.