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Research paper−234−Synthesiology - English edition Vol.2 No.4 pp.234-245 (Feb. 2010) effect, and we set our technological issue as the construction of a “real-time all-in-focus microscope,” which is a new micro-visual system that solves the optical scaling effect within “real time” during microscopic manipulations in high-power optical systems such as the optical microscope[1]-[4].2 History of struggle: twists and turnsHere, we chronologically present the path from an idea that initially started as a scientific interest to product realization, while overcoming several feasibility study (FS) phases. The primary innovative idea was published in regular academic papers and as product articles after it was finalized as a product. For the Synthesiology paper, I shall explain the process from the idea phase through several FS phases and then finally to product realization. I shall specifically mention that the course of these FS phases was greatly affected by the “strategic deepening and selective synthesis” that are described as synthesiology including selections and rejections of some components, development of algorithms dedicated to those components, and meeting by chance with partners to realize them, as well as the “lucky coincidences” that couldn’t be quite categorized. That is because as we blindly wandered in the dark and finally arrived at the goal, 1 Technological issue to be realizedRecently, there have been increase in industrial enthusiasm in micro- and nano-technologies, and there is also an increase in the demands for systems that can observe the microenvironment and systems that allow manipulators to operate the microenvironment. The examples of observation systems are optical and electron microscopes. The optical microscopes are widely used to observe micro-size objects that do not surpass the optical limit; i.e. sub micro meter, and lack of the depth information. In biological usage, the products demanded in the micro-size market include ones that allow cell and DNA manipulation while looking at the optical microscope images. In industrial usage, there are demands for observing and inspecting both the wire-bonded chip surface and bonding surface at the same time in LSI product inspection.In such microscopic operation, it is necessary to conduct manipulations while sensing the three dimensional position of the actual micro-object. The major differences between an ordinary environment and a microenvironment are, in the latter, (1) the viscosity due to the van der Waals force rather than the weight of the object due to physical scaling effect cannot be neglected, and at the same time (2) as we approach the optical limit of the optical microscope, the range in the depth of the visible object (depth of field) becomes extremely small due to optical scaling effect. In this research, the issue of (2) optical scaling effect is addressed.As a result of the optical scaling effect, in an optical system with shallow depth of field as in a microscope image, the objects with different depths are unfocused when an object with certain depth is set in focus, as shown in Fig. 1. Therefore, for product inspection in many cases, several images are shot at varying focal distances while moving the focal distance, and then these images are processed. Therefore, we set our objective as virtually reducing the issue of optical scaling - WYSIWYG in the micro-world -Kohtaro OhbaIntelligent System Institute, AIST Tsukuba Central 2, 1-1-1 Umezono, Tsukuba 305-8568, Japan E-mail : Original manuscript received December 5, 2008, Revisions received August 20, 2009, Accepted August 21, 2009In this paper, our struggle to realize a high-speed digital processed microscopic observational system for tele-micro-operation with a dynamic focusing system and a high-speed digital-processing system using the “depth from focus” criteria is reported. To realize the system, each functional element and its system configuration had been deeply discussed not only in the academic society but also with several companies, there were many trials and errors, and the final product system had been developed after several trials.Development of a real-time all-in-focus microscopeKeywords : Real-time, microscope, all-in-focus[Translation from Synthesiology, Vol.2, No.4, p.264-275 (2009)]Fig. 1 Microscope image of microscopic operation (manipulating 4 m glass beads).(a) Glass beads and forceps are at different heights, and (b) glass beads and forceps are at same height.

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