Abstract: Two wells are selected and upper, lower, left, and right logical edge coordinates of the two wells are calculated. An image of a portion near each set of logical edge coordinates is captured, and a rectangular separability filter is applied to each captured image and for each captured image, coordinates of a center position of the rectangular separability filter obtained when a peak value of a separability is obtained are detected as temporary edge coordinates. Thereafter, actual center coordinates are calculated for each well selected, based on upper, lower, left, and right temporary edge coordinates. Finally, the amount of positional displacement of a well plate from an ideal placement state is calculated based on the center coordinates of the two wells selected.

Abstract: Two wells are selected (step S10) and upper, lower, left, and right logical edge coordinates of the two wells are calculated (step S20). An image of a portion near each set of logical edge coordinates is captured (step S30), and a rectangular separability filter is applied to each captured image and for each captured image, coordinates of a center position of the rectangular separability filter obtained when a peak value of a separability is obtained are detected as temporary edge coordinates (step S40). Thereafter, actual center coordinates are calculated for each well selected in step S10, based on upper, lower, left, and right temporary edge coordinates (step S60). Finally, the amount of positional displacement of a well plate from an ideal placement state is calculated based on the center coordinates of the two wells selected in step S10 (step S70).

Abstract: A cell observation apparatus includes an imaging device capable of imaging a vessel containing cells while varying a focal position, an illuminating device for irradiating the vessel with illuminating light; and a controller for controlling the imaging device. The controller includes: a z-stack imaging controller for causing the imaging device to take a plurality of z-stack images while varying the focal position; a variance value calculation part for calculating a variance value of pixels values for each of the z-stack images; an edge index value calculation part for calculating an edge index value indicative of edge strength for each of the z-stack images; a focus evaluation value calculation part for calculating a focus evaluation value having a minimum value in an in-focus position, based on the variance value and the edge index value; and an in-focus position estimation part for calculating the focal position where the focus evaluation value has a minimum value to estimate the in-focus position.

Abstract: A cell observation apparatus includes an imaging device capable of imaging a vessel containing cells while varying a focal position, an illuminating device for irradiating the vessel with illuminating light; and a controller for controlling the imaging device. The controller includes: a z-stack imaging controller for causing the imaging device to take a plurality of z-stack images while varying the focal position; a variance value calculation part for calculating a variance value of pixels values for each of the z-stack images; an edge index value calculation part for calculating an edge index value indicative of edge strength for each of the z-stack images; a focus evaluation value calculation part for calculating a focus evaluation value having a minimum value in an in-focus position, based on the variance value and the edge index value; and an in-focus position estimation part for calculating the focal position where the focus evaluation value has a minimum value to estimate the in-focus position.

Abstract: An appearance inspection apparatus comprises an inspection part for detecting a defect of a pattern on the basis of an image of a surface of a substrate on which the pattern is formed, which is captured by an imaging part. The inspection part comprises an image transfer part for transferring image data which is obtained by imaging a region to be inspected on the substrate and stored in an image storing memory by the imaging part to a plurality of image processing memories and a plurality of GPUs for taking image data corresponding to respective regions to be processed out of transferred image data which are transferred to the image processing memories by the image transfer part and performing an inspection process for defect detection on the image data.

Abstract: An inspection apparatus (1) has an image pickup part (2) for performing an image pickup of a substrate (9), an operation part (4) to which an image signal is inputted from said image pickup part (2) and a computer (5), and the operation part (4) specifies an inspection image and a reference image from an object image acquired by the image pickup part (2). In the operation part (4), a region class to which each pixel of the specified inspection image belongs is specified on the basis of a corresponding pixel value of the reference image. In a comparator circuit of the operation part (4), a differential absolute value between each pixel of the inspection image and a corresponding pixel of the reference image is calculated and the differential absolute value is compared with a defect check threshold value in accordance with the specified region class, to perform defect check. The inspection apparatus (1) can thereby appropriately detect a defect in accordance with the region class to which each pixel belongs.

Abstract: In a defect detection apparatus 1, in a reference image inspection circuit 42 compared are a reference image representing a pattern in a die which is determined as a reference on a substrate 9 and a plurality of supervisory images which represent patterns in selected block areas, respectively, to detect defects included in the reference image. Subsequently, in the target image inspection circuit 44, a target image representing a pattern in another die and the reference image are compared to detect a plurality of defect candidates included in the target image. Then, a defect detector 45 excludes defect candidates overlapping with the defects included in the reference image from the plurality of defect candidates on the basis of at least positional information of the defects included in the reference image. This makes it possible to detect defects existing in the pattern in another die accurately while eliminating effects of the defects existing in the pattern in the die which is determined as the reference.

Abstract: An inspection apparatus (1) has an image pickup part (2) for performing an image pickup of a substrate (9), an operation part (4) to which an image signal is inputted from said image pickup part (2) and a computer (5), and the operation part (4) specifies an inspection image and a reference image from an object image acquired by the image pickup part (2). In the operation part (4), a region class to which each pixel of the specified inspection image belongs is specified on the basis of a corresponding pixel value of the reference image. In a comparator circuit of the operation part (4), a differential absolute value between each pixel of the inspection image and a corresponding pixel of the reference image is calculated and the differential absolute value is compared with a defect check threshold value in accordance with the specified region class, to perform defect check. The inspection apparatus (1) can thereby appropriately detect a defect in accordance with the region class to which each pixel belongs.