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Article ID: HXB1078 — Created: 22 Dec 2017 — Reviewed: 10 Apr 2020
How fast does the uScopeHXII scan a whole slide?
A number of selections and options contribute to scan performance. Additionally, there are a number of performance enhancements that are not always possible (like blank field detection/skipping)—we have avoided those for these benchmarks.
For most whole slide scanners, a 20x objective is used for timing and speed calculations. Since the uScopeHXII is available in several different objective configurations, we completed these tests with each supported objective.
Resolution of the camera is really about pixel mapping. The uScope camera operates in two different modes:
For these benchmarks, we scanned using both camera resolution modes.
Note
High definition (HD) mode scans are several times slower than standard definition (SD) mode scans. In some cases, high definition can approximate standard definition at the next higher magnification objective. For example, high definition scans at 20x are very close to the resolution of a standard definition scan at 40x.
The typical benchmark for a "whole slide" is a 15mm x 15mm area (about the size of a square cover slip). That is the scan area used for these tests. It is important to scan a 15mm x 15mm area that is completely covered with tissue in order to obtain accurate results. Scanning blank areas of the slide could skew the results due to blank detection/skipping algorithms that most scanners employ.
The uScope Navigator application allows you to select from among four (4) different focus methods when scanning a slide.
Note
Each focus method affects scan speed. Initial Focus and Predictive Focus are the fastest.
Some scanners require more setup time than others. As a single-slide scanner, the uScope requires very little setup time. As the setup time varies from scanner to scanner, we have excluded it from these benchmarks.
All whole slide scanners require some processing to combine image fields/data and output the large scanned image. The uScope Navigator application combines fields while scanning the region of interest. So, the process time is mainly composed of filter time and image output time. The process time is included in the table below.
The following table provides scan and process time (for a 15mm × 15mm region) for various uScopeHXII Models by objective and camera mode.
uScope Model | Objective | Camera Mode | Pixel Mapping (µm/pixel) | Focus Method | Fields | Scan Time | Process Time | Total Time Scan + Process |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
uScopeHXII-10 | 10x (0.30NA) Infinity | SD | ≈1.00 | Predictive | 648 | ≈1:45 | ≈0:15 | ≈2:00 |
HD | ≈0.50 | Predictive | 527 | ≈2:30 | ≈1:20 | ≈3:50 | ||
uScopeHXII-20 | 20x (0.65NA) Infinity | SD | ≈0.50 | Predictive | 2,080 | ≈5:10 | ≈1:05 | ≈6:15 |
HD | ≈0.25 | Predictive | 1,680 | ≈7:45 | ≈4:25 | ≈12:10 | ||
uScopeHXII-40 | 40x (0.80NA) Infinity | SD | ≈0.25 | Predictive | 9,870 | ≈20:45 | ≈5:15 | ≈26:00 |
HD | ≈0.13 | Predictive | 7,995 | ≈33:30 | ≈19:15 | ≈52:45 |