RECONSTRUCTION ALGORITHM FOR FOURIER PTYCHOGRAPHIC IMAGING

A method of generating an image of a substantially translucent specimen includes illuminating and imaging the specimen based on light filtered by an optical element. A plurality of variably-illuminated relatively low resolution intensity images of the specimen are acquired for which content of the images corresponds to partially overlapping regions in frequency space. A relatively higher resolution image of the specimen is then reconstructed by iteratively updating overlapping regions of the relatively higher resolution image in Fourier space with the plurality of variably-illuminated, relatively lower resolution intensity images. The iterative updating processes the plurality of relatively lower resolution intensity images in a first sequence which progresses from a centre region of the relatively higher resolution image in increasing spatial frequency followed by a second sequence which progresses towards the centre region in decreasing spatial frequency.