Technique to count objects in a scanned image
US5403722A · kind A · utility
Assignee
Inventors
Key dates
| Filing date | Jul 14, 1994 |
| Grant date | Apr 4, 1995 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Jul 14, 2014 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC C)Chemistry; Metallurgy
- CPC primaryC12M41/36
- WIPO fieldBiotechnology
- WIPO sectorChemistry
Abstract
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for counting the number of microorganism colonies present on a disposable microorganism culturing device having a substantially planar substrate. The preferred apparatus of the present invention includes an LED bar illuminating the surface of the substrate and a linear array of SELFOC lenses which focus the light reflected off of the substrate onto a linear CCD sensor array. The CCD sensor array is connected to a microprocessor which analyzes the raster-scanned data using the preferred algorithm. The preferred algorithm uses the sigma-shaped neighborhood for image processing. The preferred algorithm passes the sigma region across the image in a raster-scanned order to detect object starts and merges which yield a colony count for a scanned microorganism culturing device.
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.