METHOD FOR IN-SITU FOCUS-FUSION MULTI-LAYER SPECTRAL IMAGING AND ANALYSIS OF PARTICULATE SAMPLES

摘要

Method of in-situ focus-fusion is applied to focused and defocused images acquired by multi-layer spectral imaging of a depth dependent particulate sample, for constructing fused focused cube spectral image representations (66, 68, 70) of the particles, thereby generating a focused image (72) of each particle (26-52). A focus-fusion factor is defined and calculated for combining empirical particle physicochemical characteristics relating to particle chemical composition and associated chemistry, and, particle morphology, with empirical particle spectral characteristics relating to image sharpness, signal-to-noise ratio (S/N), pixel intensity, spectral distances, and, spectral fingerprints associated with spectral emission patterns of individual particles (26-52). This focus-fusion factor is used during image acquisition, target detection, image analysis and image classification. There is three-dimensional mapping of positions, sizes, and emission spectra characteristics of the particles (26-52). Particle physicochemical charcterists and parameters are correlated with particle spectral characteristics and parameters, using the fused focused cube spectral image data (72) and spectral imaging calibration data.