JPH03122552A - Photographing apparatus of microplate - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To make the apparatus compact in size while arranging easy installation of a microplate by holding a condensing lens which can cover the whole of the microplate with a predetermined distance spaced from the microplate and, providing an optical path restricting device between the microplate and a TV camera. CONSTITUTION:A microplate 1 is set above an opening of a frame body 10. A hood 4 mounted in the frame body 10 is freely opened/closed and placed at a position to cover the microplate 1. A diffuser 5 is fixed inside the frame body at such a position that the light from a light source 8 is reflected in a diffused manner to the microplate 1. The light reflected by the diffuser 5 and passing through the microplate 1 is guided along an optical path 9 from a convex lens 2 to a reflecting mirror 6 finally to a TV camera 3. The hood 4 is supported rotatably by the frame body 10 so that it can be freely opened/ closed to the microplate 1 by a shaft 7.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION [Field of Industrial Application] The present invention relates to an apparatus for photographing aggregation images resulting from antigen-antibody reactions within a large number of wells of a microplate.

[Conventional technology]

It is common practice to photograph and store images of aggregates in a large number of wells on a microplate for, for example, research, evaluation, and management purposes.

For example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-58237 uses a television camera to directly capture an image of the light transmitted through a microplate having a large number of wells, or the light reflected thereby.
A device for processing the output signal to determine aggregation in each well is shown.

As shown in FIG. 1, the optical system in this conventional device directly guides the optical image from the microplate to the television camera. When taking images directly in this way, due to the influence of the objective lens of the television camera,
The image of the wells at the periphery of the microplate will be distorted as shown in FIG. Such distortions complicate subsequent evaluation relatively.

[Problem that the invention seeks to solve]

Conventionally, in order to solve this type of problem, it has been common to make the distance between the microplate and the objective lens sufficiently large according to the characteristics of the lens.

Although this means is naturally effective, it has the disadvantage of inevitably increasing the size of the photographing device. To avoid this,
In the above-mentioned Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-120002, at least one reflecting mirror is used to appropriately bend the optical path, thereby reducing the size of the device. However, even in such a device, the size is still large,
In addition, it requires a person to perform cumbersome operations when using a microplate imaging device, and the equipment therefor is also relatively complex and expensive.

[Means for Solving the Problems] An object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problem of image distortion by simple means.

A further object of the present invention is to provide an imaging device that has an optical system that allows the imaging device to be miniaturized, and in which a microplate can be installed extremely easily.

According to the present invention, by placing a light-condensing lens capable of covering the entire microplate between the microplate and the television camera, image distortion around the microplate can be removed. There is.

Further, according to the present invention, the diffuser is placed in the optical path from the light source to the microplate to avoid the diffuser from becoming too long, and the diffuser can be removed from the optical path when installing the microplate to facilitate its installation.

[Effect]

A condenser lens is used to correct the distortion of light entering the vicinity of the objective lens of the television camera from the periphery of the microplate, and the image is photographed as a normal image. By doing so, it is possible to effectively avoid increasing the length of the device. Furthermore, by employing a movable diffuser, the optical path can be made more compact and the microplate can be easily installed.3Furthermore, since there is no movement of the microplate within the photographing device, the aggregation pattern will not be disrupted at all.

〔Example〕

FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating the principle of the invention. In FIG. 2, a convex lens 2 is placed between a microplate 1 having a large number of wells and a television camera 30 using a suitable support. This lens 2 is especially suitable for microplate 1.
This is to compensate for the distortion of the image of the well in the peripheral area of the well, and originally, as shown by the dotted line in Fig. 2, the image entering the objective lens of the television camera 3 as a perspective image is shown by the solid line. It acts to guide the image to the objective lens as a normal vision image. As a result, the distance between the microplate I and the television camera 3, which was conventionally required to take distortion-free images, is significantly reduced.

A microplate image taken using this method is shown in FIG. Comparing FIG. 3 with FIG. 1, it can be seen that the agglutination reaction image in the wells around the microplate has been clearly corrected.

FIG. 4 is a partial cross-sectional view of one embodiment employing the principles of the present invention. In FIG. 4, the microplate 1 is a frame 10.
is placed over the opening of the A hood 4 is attached to the frame 10 so as to be openable and closable.

This hood 4 is placed in a position to cover the microplate 1.

A diffuser 5 is fixed to the inner surface of the hood 4. The diffuser 5 is arranged so as to diffusely reflect the light onto the microplate 1 with respect to a light source 8, such as a strobe light source, which provides uniform light to the microplate 1.

Microplate 1 is reflected diffusely by diffuser 5.
The light that passes through the convex lens 2 is guided along an optical path 9 from another reflecting mirror 6 to the television camera 3.

The hood 4 is rotatably supported on the frame IO by a suitable shaft 7 so that it can be opened and closed relative to the microplate 1. Therefore, the microplate 1 can be taken in and taken out with the hood 4 open as shown by the imaginary line. This opening and closing of the hood can be done manually, but it can also be easily automated.

FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along the line 2--2 in FIG. 4, and shows an effective opening/closing means for use in the above-mentioned automation.

In FIG. 5, the shaft 7 is divided into two parts to ensure an optical path 9, and one end of each is fixed to both sides of the hood 4. These shafts 7 are rotatably supported by appropriate bearings 11 on the side walls of the frame 10, respectively. Axis 7 on the left side of Figure 5
A bevel gear 17 is fixed to the other end and meshes with a bevel gear 21 fixed to the tip of the output shaft of the motor 20. This motor is a reversible motor, and the hood 4 is opened and closed by its forward and reverse rotation. The operation of this reversible motor is based on the light source 8.
It will be clear to those skilled in the art that the operation of the above can be easily controlled.

It is clear that the lens for peripheral image distortion compensation used in the present invention is not limited to a normal convex lens, but may also be a single-convex lens, a concave-convex lens, or a lens disposed only at the periphery of the microplate to provide a predetermined effect. be.

〔Effect of the invention〕

According to the present invention, image distortion from the periphery of the microplate can be resolved without increasing the length of the optical path. Furthermore, by diffusely reflecting the optical path using a movable diffuser, the apparatus can be made smaller and the microplate can be easily installed in the apparatus. Furthermore, since there is no movement of the microplate within the imaging device, the aggregation pattern will not be disrupted at all.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Figure 1 is a microplate image photographed using a conventional device, Figure 2 is a schematic diagram showing the principle of the present invention, Figure 3 is a microplate image photographed using the principle of the present invention, and Figure 4 is a photograph of the present invention. FIG. 5 is a partial cross-sectional view taken along line v--■ in FIG. 4, showing an embodiment of the invention.
, □l... Microplate, 2... Condensing lens, 3... Pre-vision camera, 4... Hood,
5...Reflector, 6...Axis, 7...Light source, 9...
Frame body, 16.20... Bevel gear, 19... Reversible motor

Claims (4)

[Claims] (1) A lens that can cover the entire microplate and has a light-condensing effect, a frame that holds this lens at a predetermined distance from the microplate, a television camera, and a space between the microplate and the camera. A microplate imaging device comprising: a device for limiting an optical path; (2) The microplate photographing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the optical path includes at least one reflecting mirror. (3) The microplate photographing apparatus according to claim 1, wherein the optical path includes a hood that also serves as a diffuser. (4) The microplate photographing apparatus according to claim 3, wherein the optical path diffuser is movably supported by the frame to facilitate installation of the microplate.