title: Real-time brightfield, darkfield, and phase contrast imaging in a light-emitting diode array microscope.
abstract: We demonstrate a single-camera imaging system that can simultaneously acquire brightfield, darkfield, and phase contrast images in real time. Our method uses computational illumination via a programmable light-emitting diode (LED) array at the source plane, providing flexible patterning of illumination angles. Brightfield, darkfield, and differential phase contrast images are obtained by changing the LED patterns, without any moving parts. Previous work with LED array illumination was only valid for static samples because the hardware speed was not fast enough to meet real-time acquisition and processing requirements. Here, we time multiplex patterns for each of the three contrast modes in order to image dynamic biological processes in all three contrast modes simultaneously. We demonstrate multicontrast operation at the maximum frame rate of our camera (50 Hz with 2160 × 2560 pixels).
authors.affiliation: University of Electronic Science and Technology of China (UESTC), State Key Laboratory of Electronic Thin Films and Integrated Devices, School of Optoelectronic Information, Chengdu 610054, ChinabUniversity of California, Department of Electrical Engineer.
authors.forename: Ziji
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: University of California, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
authors.forename: Lei
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.affiliation: University of California, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
authors.forename: Sijia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: University of California, Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Sciences, Berkeley, California 94720, United States.
authors.forename: Laura
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Waller
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D017173:Caenorhabditis elegans; D004867:Equipment Design; D006367:HeLa Cells; D006801:Humans; D007091:Image Processing, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D008029:Lighting / Q000295:instrumentation*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods*; D014741:Video Recording