PIPETTOR SOFTWARE INTERFACE

• US 20090074622A1
• Filed: 09/17/2007
• Published: 03/19/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 09/17/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Integra Biosciences AG
• Original Assignee: Integra Biosciences Corp.
• Inventors: Kalamakis, George, Kelly, Terrence, Mathus, Gregory, Nelson, Gary, Novak, Joel, Steiner, Kenneth, Finger, Jonathan
• Granted Patent: US 8,033,188 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 422/100
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2200/0605 Metering of fluids
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2200/087 Ergonomic aspects
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2300/027 Digital display, e.g. LCD, LED
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 2400/0478 pistons
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/0217 of the plunger pump type medical syringes A61M
• CPC Class Codes: B01L 3/0237 Details of electronic control, e.g. relating to user interface
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1626 with a single-body enclosure integrating a flat display, e.g. Personal Digital Assistants [PDAs]
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/1656 Details related to functional adaptations of the enclosure, e.g. to provide protection against EMI, shock, water, or to host detachable peripherals like a mouse or removable expansions units like PCMCIA cards, or to provide access to internal components for maintenance or to removable storage supports like CDs or DVDs, or to mechanically mount accessories mounting of accessories to a computer display G06F1/1607; display hoods G06F1/1603; cooling arrangements for portable computers G06F1/203
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 1/169 the I/O peripheral being an integrated pointing device, e.g. trackball in the palm rest area, mini-joystick integrated between keyboard keys, touch pads or touch stripes G06F1/1643 takes precedence; constructional details of pointing devices G06F3/033

Abstract

A hand-held electronic pipettor includes menu driven software for controlling the information displayed on the user interface display, for inputting information to program the pipettor and for controlling the operation of the pipettor.

Claims

1. A hand-held electronic pipettor comprising:

an elongated body adapted to be held in the hand of a user;

a touch pad control located on a front side of the body to be operated by the user;

a run button located on the pipettor to be operated the user;

a user interface display located on the front side of the pipettor above the touch pad control;

a microprocessor; and

menu-driven software for controlling information displayed on the user interface display and for programming the microprocessor to operate the pipettor.

2. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 1 wherein the touch pad control comprises a circular touch pad in which rotational movements of a thumb or finger translate into up and down cursor movements on the display;

and

an enter button located at the center of the circular touch pad.

3. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 2 wherein the circular touch pad includes four selector locations, namely a back button located at the top of the circular touch pad, a purge button located at the bottom of the circular touch pad and right and left navigation buttons located at the right side and left side of the circular touch pad, respectively.

4. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 1 wherein volume selections are graphically displayed on the user interface display and the software controls the graphically displayed volume selections using a graphical gauge that indicates available volumes for said volume selections ranging from a minimum value to a maximum value for the pipettor, and the user scrolls to a desired volume using the touch pad control.

5. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 4 wherein the display indicates the scrolled to value for the volume selections via a graphical pointer.

6. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 5 wherein the scrolled to value for the volume selections is also displayed via alphanumeric characters.

7. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 2 wherein the touch pad control includes a circular touch pad which allows the user to select a desired volume by rotating their thumb or finger around the circular touch pad in either a clockwise or counter-clockwise direction, and the pipettor further has a coarse setting and a fine setting wherein the user can navigate the entire range of available values for volume selection with less revolutions using the coarse setting than the fine setting.

8. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 7 wherein the full range of volume selections can be reached in less than three and one half revolutions under the coarse setting.

9. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 1 wherein the software can be programmed to store one or more favorite volume selections in computer memory.

10. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 1 wherein available selections for relative pipetting speed are graphically displayed on the user interface display and the software controls the graphically displayed pipetting speed selections using a graphical gauge that indicates available relative pipetting speed selections ranging from a minimum value to a maximum value, and the user scrolls to a desired relative pipetting speed using the touch pad control.

11. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 4, wherein a desired total count value of successive aspirating or dispensing steps for a given procedure are graphically displayed on the user interface display and the software controls the graphical display of the desired count value, at least in part, using a graphical gauge from which the user selects the desired count using the touch pad control, and further wherein the desired total count value corresponding to the position of the graphical gauge is shown in alphanumeric characters.

12. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 1 wherein the software includes a pace selection which sets the time duration between repeating dispenses when the run button is activated, and the pace selection includes at least the following settings:

none, slow, medium and fast, which are graphically displayed on the user interface display and can be selected or edited by the user via the touch pad control.

13. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 1 wherein steps of a selected pipetting mode or custom routine are shown on the display while the procedure is running, such that after the first step has been completed and before the last step has been started at least three steps of the procedure are displayed, the displayed steps being the previously completed step, the current step and the next step.

14. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 13 wherein the software for each pipetting mode includes edit screens which allow the user to edit variables relevant to the selected pipetting mode, run screens which instruct the user on a step-by-step basis through the routine, and help screens which provide the user access to explanations on how to execute the selected program.

15. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 14 wherein each of the edit screens has the same predominant background color, each of the run screens also has a predominant background color which is different than the predominant background color for the edit screens, and each of the help screens also has a predominant background color which is different than the predominant background color for the edit screens and the run screens.

18. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 14 wherein at least one of the following options is available for one or more of the programmable pipetting modes:

the ability to edit aspiration volume;

the ability to edit dispensing volumes;

the ability to edit the volume of a last dispense volume;

the ability to edit pipetting speed;

the ability to edit pace between sequential dispenses; and

the ability to provide a count of successive dispenses or aspiration steps.

16. A hand-held electronic pipettor comprising:

a user interface display;

a programmable microprocessor; and

menu-driven software for controlling information displayed on the user interface and for programming the microprocessor to operate the pipettor wherein the software provides at least one programmable pipetting mode based on predetermined algorithms and further provides the ability to create editable custom pipetting routines.

17. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 16 wherein the software contains at least one of the following programmable pipetting modes based on predetermined algorithms:

pipet;

repeat dispense;

sample dilute;

pipet/mix;

manual pipet;

reverse pipet;

variable dispense;

variable aspirate;

sample dilute/mix; and

serial dilution.

19. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 16 wherein at least one of the programmable pipetting modes is a manual pipet mode and the pipettor includes the ability to change the direction of the pipettor between an aspirating direction and a dispensing direction when the pipettor is in manual pipet mode.

20. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 16 wherein the programmable pipetting modes are accessible from a main menu, and the user is provided the capability of removing one or more of the programmable pipetting modes from the main menu.

21. A hand-held electronic pipettor comprising:

an elongated body adapted to be held in the hand of a user;

a user programming input device;

a user interface display located on the front side of the pipettor;

a microprocessor; and

menu-driven software for controlling information displayed on the user interface display and for programming the microprocessor to operate the pipettor, wherein volume selections are graphically displayed on the user interface display, and the software controls the graphical display of available volume selections using a graphical gauge that indicates available values for volume selections ranging from a minimum value to a maximum value for the pipettor, and a user can select a desired value using the user programming input device to move a graphical pointer on the user interface display.

22. A hand-held electronic pipettor as recited in claim 21 wherein the software can be programmed to store one or more favorite volume selections in computer memory.

23. A hand-held electronic pipettor comprising:

an elongated body adapted to be held in the hand of a user;

a user programming input device;

a user interface display located on the front side of the pipettor;

a microprocessor; and

menu-driven software for controlling information displayed on the user interface display and for programming the microprocessor to operate the pipettor, wherein the software includes error checking routines that display an error message when program functions exceed predetermined volume limits and that will not allow the user to save an illegal program but will allow the user to continue programming and changes the displayed error message to a save prompt when the error checking routine determines that the programmed routine is legal.

24. A handheld electronic pipettor comprising:

an elongated body adapted to be held in the hand of a user;

a user programming input device;

a user interface display located on the front of the pipettor;

a microprocessor;

flash memory; and

menu-driven software for controlling information displayed on the user interface and for programming the microprocessor to operate the pipettor, wherein the software includes the start up screen which is capable of being personalized, and data regarding personalized pictures or information can be stored and reprogrammed into the flash memory.