Development of an automatic polarized microscopic imaging system for asbestos qualitative analysis

This paper describes about an automated microscopic imaging system for supporting asbestos qualitative analysis. By JIS (Japanese Industrial Standards), the dispersion staining method is designated as a visual qualitative analysis for asbestos in the construction materials. In the analysis process using the microscope, the expert monitors the particles including asbestos fibers and count them. For supporting such observation process, we developed an automated microscopic image collecting system. It realizes to take the images of the target area and store them to the database automatically. In this paper, we introduce and report the prototype system and its performance.