THE STUDY OF AUTO-FOCUSING ALGORITHMS IN OPTICAL MICROSCOPY

Auto-focusing technology has been implemented in a
variety of fields including automated biological,
biomedical and pharmaceutical analyses, as well as
many civilian and military applications such as
digital cameras and radar imaging. Current study
implements an auto-focusing procedure by computer
simulation. The integration of the image power
spectrum over a selected frequency range is computed
as the focus criterion. The frequency range for
power spectrum integration can be specified
automatically or manually by the user through the
graphical user interface (Auto-focusing GUI). Two
searching algorithms, modified Fibonacci search and
modified binary search, are available to perform the
searching of focused position based on the focus
criterion function. Users are allowed to choose a
particular searching algorithm through the Auto-
focusing GUI. The auto-focusing procedure has been
tested to be robust in different noise situations
(e.g. Gaussian noise at different noise variance
levels and Poisson noise).