FLOW METER HAVING A BACKGROUND PATTERN WITH FIRST AND SECOND PORTIONS

• US 20160061641A1
• Filed: 11/11/2015
• Published: 03/03/2016
• Est. Priority Date: 12/21/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: Deka Products Limited Partnership
• Original Assignee: Deka Products Limited Partnership
• Inventors: Peret, Bob D., Yoo, Brian H., Kane, Derek G., Kamen, Dean, Murphy, Colin H., Kerwin, John M.
• Granted Patent: US 9,746,094 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 1/1
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3306 Optical measuring means
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/3334 Measuring or controlling the flow rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 2205/50 with microprocessors or computers
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 39/284 Lever clamps
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/1411 Drip chambers A61M5/162, A61M5/1689, A61M5/40 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/16804 Flow controllers
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/16877 Adjusting flow; Devices for setting a flow rate
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/16886 for measuring fluid flow rate, i.e. flowmeters
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/1689 Drip counters
• CPC Class Codes: A61M 5/172 electrical or electronic A61M5/16804, A61M5/16831 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: F16K 27/00 Construction of housing methods for welding housings B23K; Use of materials therefor
• CPC Class Codes: G01F 1/661 using light
• CPC Class Codes: G05B 15/02 electric
• CPC Class Codes: G05D 7/0635 by action on throttling means G05D7/0688, G05D7/0694 take precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 18/22 Matching criteria, e.g. proximity measures
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20182 Noise reduction or smoothing in the temporal domain; Spatio-temporal filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/20224 Image subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30004 Biomedical image processing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 2207/30232 Surveillance
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 3/18 Image warping, e.g. rearranging pixels individually
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/50 : using two or more images, e.g. averaging or subtraction
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/70 : Denoising; Smoothing
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/0012 : Biomedical image inspection
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/20 : Analysis of motion motion estimation for coding, decoding, compressing or decompressing digital video signals H04N19/43, H04N19/51
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 7/60 : Analysis of geometric attributes
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/141 : Control of illumination
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/30 : Noise filtering
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/75 : Organisation of the matching processes, e.g. simultaneous or sequential comparisons of image or video features; Coarse-fine approaches, e.g. multi-scale approaches; using context analysis; Selection of dictionaries
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/761 : Proximity, similarity or dissimilarity measures
• CPC Class Codes: H04N 7/183 : for receiving images from a single remote source

Abstract

A flow meter includes a first image sensor, a background pattern, and at least one processor. The first image sensor has a first field of view and is positioned to view a drip chamber within the first field of view. The background pattern is positioned within the field of view of the first image sensor, and the background pattern includes first and second portions. The processor is operatively coupled to the first image sensor and configured to: receive a first image from the first image sensor, and estimate at least one parameter of liquid within the drip chamber in accordance with a distortion of the background pattern caused by the liquid as indicated by the first image.

Claims

1. A flow meter, comprising:

a first image sensor having a first field of view, wherein the first image sensor is positioned to view a drip chamber within the first field of view;

a background pattern positioned within the field of view of the first image sensor, wherein the background pattern includes first and second portions, the second portion of the background pattern is configured for detection of a free flow condition within the drip chamber; and

at least one processor operatively coupled to the first image sensor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to;

receive a first image from the first image sensor, and

estimate at least one parameter of liquid within the drip chamber in accordance with a distortion of the background pattern caused by the liquid as indicated by the first image.

2. The flow meter according to claim 1, wherein the second portion of the background pattern includes an array of lines.

3. The flow meter according to claim 1, wherein the first portion is configured for detection of a drop.

4. The flow meter according to claim 3, wherein the first portion is further configured for detection of a growth of the drop.

5. The flow meter according to claim 1, wherein the first portion is on an upper portion of the background pattern.

6. The flow meter according to claim 5, wherein the second portion is on a lower portion of the background pattern.

7. The flow meter according to claim 6, wherein the first and second portions each occupy about half of the background pattern.

8. The flow meter according to claim 1, wherein the first portion includes at least one dot and the second portion includes an array of lines.

9. The flow meter according to claim 8, wherein the first portion includes a plurality of dots including the at least one dot.

10. The flow meter according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine a free flow condition exists by:

comparing a background image with the first image; and

determining that the liquid distorts the second portion in accordance with predetermined criteria.

11. The flow meter according to claim 10, wherein the second portion includes an array of lines and the at least one processor determines that the free flow conditions exists when the array of lines changes angles as viewed within the first image.

12. The flow meter according to claim 1, wherein the at least one processor compares the first image to a background image.

13. The flow meter according to claim 1, further comprising a second image sensor having a second field of view, wherein the second image sensor is positioned to view the drip chamber within the second field of view, wherein the processor receives the second image from the second image sensor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine an existence of the free flow condition using the first and second images.

14. The flow meter according to claim 1, further comprising a transceiver configured to communicate with a monitoring client.

15. The flow meter according to claim 14, wherein the transceiver is configured to communicate with the monitoring client concerning at least one of free flow detection data, flow rate estimation data, control data, and exposure data.

16. The flow meter according to claim 1, further comprising a valve configured for being controlled by the at least one processor, wherein the valve is in fluid communication with the drip chamber.

17. The flow meter according to claim 16, wherein the at least one parameter of liquid is a flow rate and the at least one processor controls the valve to achieve a target flow rate.

18. The flow meter according to claim 16, wherein the valve comprises:

a housing configured to surround a tube fluidly coupled to the drip chamber, the housing defining a hole;

a filler disposed within the housing;

a plunger configured to engage the filler within the housing through the hole to thereby operatively deform the tube within the housing when engaging the filler; and

an actuator operatively coupled to the plunger and configured to actuate the plunger.

19. The flow meter according to claim 16, wherein the processor is configured to actuate the valve in accordance with the at least one parameter of liquid in a feed-back configuration.

20. The flow meter according to claim 1, further comprising binary optics configured to generate the background pattern.

21. The flow meter according to claim 20, wherein the binary optics includes first and second diffracting devices configured to generate the first and second portions, respectively, of the background pattern.

22. A flow meter, comprising:

a first image sensor having a first field of view, wherein the first image sensor is positioned to view a drip chamber within the first field of view;

a background pattern positioned within the field of view of the first image sensor, wherein the background pattern includes first and second portions, wherein the first portion of the background pattern is different from the second portion of the background pattern; and

at least one processor operatively coupled to the first image sensor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to;

receive a first image from the first image sensor, and

estimate at least one parameter of liquid within the drip chamber in accordance with a distortion of the background pattern caused by the liquid as indicated by the first image.

23. The flow meter according to claim 22, wherein the second portion of the background pattern is configured to detect a free flow condition.

24. The flow meter according to claim 22, wherein the first portion is configured for detection of a drop.

25. The flow meter according to claim 24, wherein the first portion is further configured for detection of a growth of the drop.

26. The flow meter according to claim 22, wherein the first portion is on an upper portion of the background pattern.

27. The flow meter according to claim 26, wherein the second portion is on a lower portion of the background pattern.

28. The flow meter according to claim 27, wherein the first and second portions each occupy about half of the background pattern.

29. The flow meter according to claim 22, wherein the first portion includes at least one dot and the second portion includes an array of lines.

30. The flow meter according to claim 29, wherein the first portion includes a plurality of dots including the at least one dot.

31. The flow meter according to claim 22, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine a free flow condition exists by:

comparing a background image with the first image; and

determining that the liquid distorts the second portion in accordance with predetermined criteria.

32. The flow meter according to claim 31, wherein the second portion includes an array of lines and the at least one processor determines that the free flow conditions exists when the array of lines changes angles as viewed within the first image.

33. The flow meter according to claim 22, wherein the at least one processor compares the first image to a background image.

34. The flow meter according to claim 22, further comprising a second image sensor having a second field of view, wherein the second image sensor is positioned to view the drip chamber within the second field of view, wherein the processor receives a second image from the second image sensor, wherein the at least one processor is configured to determine an existence of the free flow condition using the first and second images.

35. The flow meter according to claim 22, further comprising a transceiver configured to communicate with a monitoring client.

36. The flow meter according to claim 35, wherein the transceiver is configured to communicate with the monitoring client concerning at least one of free flow detection data, flow rate estimation data, control data, and exposure data.

37. The flow meter according to claim 22, further comprising a valve configured for being controlled by the at least one processor, wherein the valve is in fluid communication with the drip chamber.

38. The flow meter according to claim 37, wherein the at least one parameter of liquid is a flow rate and the at least one processor controls the valve to achieve a target flow rate.

39. The flow meter according to claim 37, wherein the valve comprises:

a housing configured to surround a tube fluidly coupled to the drip chamber, the housing defining a hole;

a filler disposed within the housing;

a plunger configured to engage the filler within the housing through the hole to thereby operatively deform the tube within the housing when engaging the filler; and

an actuator operatively coupled to the plunger and configured to actuate the plunger.

40. The flow meter according to claim 37, wherein the processor is configured to actuate the valve in accordance with the at least one parameter of liquid in a feed-back configuration.

41. The flow meter according to claim 22, further comprising binary optics configured to generate the background pattern.

42. The flow meter according to claim 41, wherein the binary optics includes first and second diffracting devices configured to generate the first and second portions, respectively, of the background pattern.

43. A method for monitoring a drip chamber, comprising:

positioning a background pattern behind the drip chamber, the background pattern includes first and second portions;

capturing a first image of the drip chamber including the background pattern;

examining a distortion of the background pattern; and

estimating at least one parameter of liquid using the examination of the distortion.