System and Method For Test Tube and Cap Identification
First Claim
1. An apparatus for identifying a test tube, comprising:
- an imager for acquiring an optical image of the tube;
a microcontroller associated with said imager;
a host interface interconnected to said microcontroller; and
wherein said microcontroller is programmed to identify the test tube in at least a portion of the optical image and then output information about the test tube through said host interface.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A system for identifying test tube types and properties in a sample handling machine using visual information automatically obtained by an optical imager and then processed using vision processing methods. The system includes an optical imager positioned to capture images containing one or more test tubes in a rack and a microcontroller programmed to extract predetermined regions of interest and interpret the optical information in the image to decipher the dimension of the test tubes, determine the presence or absence of caps on the test tubes, decode any encoded data, and interpret custom symbologies. The system may then determine the nature of the test tubes or other containers presented before the image and provide that information to the sample handling machine to assist with processing of samples.
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Citations
15 Claims
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1. An apparatus for identifying a test tube, comprising:
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an imager for acquiring an optical image of the tube; a microcontroller associated with said imager; a host interface interconnected to said microcontroller; and wherein said microcontroller is programmed to identify the test tube in at least a portion of the optical image and then output information about the test tube through said host interface. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8)
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9. A method detecting the identity of a test tube, comprising:
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acquiring an optical image including the test tube; identifying a first region of interest in the image; detecting a first set of features in the first region of interest; cropping the image to remove areas outside of the first region of interest; extracting the first set of features from the image; comparing the first set of features against a predetermined standard identifying the test tube based on the first set of features; outputting the identity of the test tube. - View Dependent Claims (10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15)
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Specification