Abstract: An apparatus for a microscope system is provided. The apparatus comprising one or more processors and one or more storage devices. The one or more processors are configured to receive region information about an accessible spatial region for an objective of the microscope system and to trigger a restriction of a relative movement of the objective based on the region information.

Abstract: A microscope control arrangement for operating a focusing device adapted to adjust a relative focus position of an objective in relation to a sample along an optical axis, including a display device configured to display a graphical user interface for receiving a user input and at least one processor configured to control the microscope focusing device and the display device for updating the graphical user interface in response to the user input, wherein the processor is configured to cause the graphical user interface to display a focus control interface including a graphical focus range element indicating a predetermined focus range and a graphical z-position pointer indicating a current z-position within the predetermined focus range, and wherein the graphical z-position pointer is movable along the graphical focus range element responsive to the user input to adjust the relative focus position to the current z-position indicated by the graphical z-position pointer.

Abstract: An image processing apparatus for determining a focused output image in a passive autofocus system is configured to retrieve a set of input images and compute a baseline estimate for at least one input image. The baseline estimate represents image structures in the input image. The image structures have a length scale larger than a predetermined image feature length scale. The image processing apparatus is further configured to compute a set of output images, wherein each output image of the set of output images is computed based on one of a different input image of the set of input images and the at least one baseline estimate for the different input image and the at least one baseline estimate for a respective different input image. The image processing apparatus is further configured to determine one output image of the set of output images as the focused output image.