TISSUE SAMPLE IDENTIFICATION SYSTEM AND APPARATUS

• US 20090214088A1
• Filed: 05/15/2006
• Published: 08/27/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 05/13/2005
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Vision Biosystems Ltd (Danaher Corporation)
• Original Assignee: Vision Biosystems Ltd (Danaher Corporation)
• Inventors: Zawadzki, Chris, Sorenson, Paul
• Granted Patent: US 8,315,445 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/128
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 1/312 for samples mounted on planar substrates
• CPC Class Codes: G01N 35/00732 Identification of carriers, materials or components in automatic analysers

Abstract

A method an apparatus for identifying slides is disclosed, where samples such as tissue sample mounted to slides are labeled with information, and an image of the information is captured by a processing instrument. The image is analyzed, for example using optical character recognition, and information extracted from the image is used to determine the test to be applied to the slide by the processing instrument. Where information about the slide cannot be extracted from the image, the image is presented to a user to that the slide information, such as its identity or the test to be applied, may be selected by the user to allow the slide to be processed.

Claims

1. A method of sample identification including the steps of:

capturing an image of at least part of a sample support;

displaying said image on a screen for identification by a user.

2. The method of claim 1 including the step of processing the image, where identification information in the image is either recognised and matches with processing information, or where the identification information is categorised as not identified.

3. The method of claim 2 including the step of associating processing steps with the recognised image using information extracted from the image.

4. The method of claim 3 including the step of presenting an image of a sample that is not identified to a user.

5. The method of claim 4 including the step of presenting the user with a number of identifiers of samples.

6. The method of claim 5 including the step of allowing the user to match the image of the sample not identified with an identifier, thus manually identifying the sample.

7. The method of claim 1 including the step of presenting the user with identifiers of samples from the pool of identifiers that have been entered into a database, but not already identified.

8. The method of claim 1 including the step of, where information within the image is automatically identified, associating the sample with processing information

9. A method of automatically identifying sample holders comprising the steps of:

capturing an image of a label on a sample holder

analysing the image to extract information about the image and where information is extracted, associating the information with the sample holder

determining a protocol or test to be applied to the sample based on the information extracted from the image.

10. The method of claim 9 comprising the step of:

analysing the image and extracting data;

comparing the extracted data to identifiers in a database;

determining the protocol or test to be applied to the sample based on the contents of the database.

11. The method of claim 10 including the steps of, where data cannot be extracted from the image:

ascertaining the protocol or test to be applied to the sample by displaying the captured image to a user,

allowing the user to select from a group of tasks not yet assigned to samples,

wherein selecting a task determines the test or protocol to be applied to the sample.

12. A method of identifying tissue samples on slides by the steps of:

capturing an image of containing information of a slide, assigning the image containing slide information a unique identifier,

ascertaining whether the captured slide information is sufficient to initiate a process on the slide,

requesting additional information required to complete the slide where necessary, assigning a protocol to the slide based on the information from the image and additional information.

13. The method of claim 12 including the step of ascertaining whether the captured slide information is sufficient to initiate a process on the slide comprises analysing the image to extract slide information.

14. An apparatus for processing samples including:

an imager

a display

a computer able to process image information to determine information about the sample

a sample processor able to process the slide in accordance with the information from the sample.