Clearbridge BioPhotonics unveils the FourierScope at MEDICA 2013

BUONA VISTA, Singapore - Nov. 13, 2013 - PRLog -- 20 November 2013, Dusseldorf Germany – Clearbridge BioPhotonics, a Singapore-based imaging technology company, unveiled its maiden product, FourierScope, a high-resolution, wide field-of-view, gigapixel microscopy system. The FourierScope is the industrial version of the “Wide-field, high-resolution Fourier Ptychographic Microscopy” that was first published in Nature Photonics in July 2013. The FourierScope transforms standard microscope into a feature-rich advanced imaging system that is purpose-built to improve the efficiency of anatomic pathology laboratories that needs to process high volume of whole slide images. Clearbridge BioPhotonics made this announcement at MEDICA, the world’s largest medical trade fair.

The invention behind FourierScope is the Fourier Ptychographic Microscopy (FPM) technique that iteratively stitches multiple variably illuminated, low-resolution intensity images in Fourier space into a wide-field, high-resolution reconstructed image. By adopting a wave front correction technique, the FPM method can correct for aberrations and digitally extend a microscope’s depth of focus beyond the physical limitations of its optics. The FPM imaging procedure transforms the general challenge of high-throughput, high-resolution microscopy from one that is coupled to the physical limitations of the system’s optics to one that is solvable through computation.

Beyond wide-field and high-resolution images, the FourierScope is able to leverage on the FPM reconstruction algorithm to offer dynamic zoom and digital refocusing across the entire field-of-view and at different focal plane, even after image acquisition. This is especially useful to anatomic pathologists whom will be liberated from the constraint of physical slide scanning or making difficult analysis on unfocused static digital images. At the hardware level, the FourierScope sets itself apart from the conventional whole slide imaging system by doing away with expensive optics, motorized stages, precision alignment apparatus to be cost competitive and mechanically robust.

"The challenge of imaging slides at high-resolution and wide field-of-view lies in the fact that it requires a physically-perfect microscope that is free of aberration. Such a system is realistically impossible to create. FPM works by collecting a set of low resolution images from the sample illuminated with angularly varied illumination light field where these data set contains the same amount of information as that which would be collected by a physically-perfect microscope. By applying a novel algorithm, we can process and titer out the high-resolution and wide field-of-view image.", said Professor Changhuei Yang, Inventor, ClearbridgeBioPhotonics.


During MEDICA, the FourierScope will be paired to InvitroCue’s CuePath Platform and Analytics. The CuePath Platform is especially designed for pathologists to manage, analyse and share images and information while the CuePath Analytics offers state-of-the-art cell and tissue based image processing algorithms for pathological applications, such as histopathology, hematopathology and cytopathology. This integrated system benefits the customers with increased workflow efficiency, readout quality and throughput at reduced time, risk and costs.

The FourierScope and CuePath will be on display and available for demonstration at MEDICA 2013 from 20 to 23 November (Hall 16, Stand 16B59).