Autofocus Tracking System Based on Digital Holographic Microscopy and Electrically Tunable Lens

Abstract

We present an autofocus tracking system implemented by the digital refocusing of digital holographic microscopy (DHM) and the tunability of an electrically tunable lens (ETL). Once the defocusing distance of an image is calculated with the DHM, then the focal plane of the imaging system is optically tuned so that it always gives a well-focused image regardless of the object location. The accuracy of the focus is evaluated by calculating the contrast of refocused images. The DHM is performed in an off-axis holographic configuration, and the ETL performs the focal plane tuning. With this proposed system, we can easily track down the object drifting along the depth direction without using any physical scanning. In addition, the proposed system can simultaneously obtain the digital hologram and the optical image by using the RGB channels of a color camera. In our experiment, the digital hologram is obtained by using the red channel and the optical image is obtained by the blue channel of the same camera at the same time. This technique is expected to find a good application in the long-term imaging of various floating cells.