US 11,670,101 B2
Automated identification, orientation and sample detection of a sample container
Dominik Sievert, Munich (DE); and Maria Sievert, Munich (DE)
Assigned to INVEOX GMBH, Munich (DE)
Appl. No. 16/981,205
Filed by INVEOX GMBH, Garching bei München (DE)
PCT Filed Feb. 21, 2019, PCT No. PCT/EP2019/054333
§ 371(c)(1), (2) Date Sep. 15, 2020,
PCT Pub. No. WO2019/174884, PCT Pub. Date Sep. 19, 2019.
Claims priority of application No. 18162225 (EP), filed on Mar. 16, 2018.
Prior Publication US 2021/0374382 A1, Dec. 2, 2021
Int. Cl. G06V 30/14 (2022.01); G06V 30/16 (2022.01); G06V 20/69 (2022.01); G06T 7/62 (2017.01); G06T 7/90 (2017.01); G06T 7/246 (2017.01); G06T 7/70 (2017.01); G01N 35/00 (2006.01); G06V 10/50 (2022.01)
CPC G06V 20/693 (2022.01) [G01N 35/00732 (2013.01); G06T 7/248 (2017.01); G06T 7/62 (2017.01); G06T 7/70 (2017.01); G06T 7/90 (2017.01); G06V 10/507 (2022.01); G06V 20/695 (2022.01); G06T 2207/20021 (2013.01); G06T 2207/20132 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30024 (2013.01); G06T 2207/30204 (2013.01)] 17 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of detecting at least one sample in a sample container, comprising:
(a) the sample container comprising a cavity, a volume of said cavity partially or fully occupied with at least one solid sample and at least one fluid;
(b) at least one camera capturing at least one image of the sample container;
(c) a data processing device detecting at least one sample in the sample container by processing the at least one image captured by the at least one camera;
(d) a motion generation system putting the sample container in motion to lift or detach the at least one solid sample in the sample container from a base of the sample container prior to the at least one camera capturing at least one image of the sample container,
wherein step (c) comprises
tiling the at least one image captured by the at least one camera;
wherein a tiling of an image comprises dividing the image into at least two tiles; and
wherein each tile comprises a plurality of neighboring pixels,
wherein step (b) comprises the at least one camera capturing a plurality of images of the sample container captured by the at least one camera,
wherein tiling the at least one image comprises tiling at least two images of the plurality of images,
wherein the at least two images comprise at least one pair of corresponding tiles and wherein two tiles are corresponding if they comprise a same position on respective images; the method further comprising detecting at least one moving object by comparing at least one pair of corresponding tiles and wherein the presence of a moving object in the tiles is inferred if difference between the compared tiles is found and wherein the difference is above a threshold and
wherein step (c) comprises utilizing the detection of at least one moving object to detect the at least one sample.