Liquid surface detecting apparatus and liquid surface detecting method using reflected light

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11029189-B2
Application number	US-201816226757-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Dec 20, 2018
Priority date	Dec 26, 2017
Publication date	Jun 8, 2021
Grant date	Jun 8, 2021

Abstract

A liquid surface detecting apparatus including: a retaining section that retains liquid as sample or reagent; a light emitter that emits light toward the liquid retained in the retaining section; an image capturing device that captures an image of the liquid retained in the retaining section; and a detecting device that detects a level of a liquid surface of the liquid retained in the retaining section based on the image of the liquid captured by the image capturing device, wherein the image capturing device is provided at a position such that the light, emitted by the light emitter and reflected by the liquid surface of the liquid, directly enters the image capturing device.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A liquid surface detecting apparatus comprising:
an aspirator configured to aspirate a liquid through a pipette, the liquid comprising a sample or reagent;
a light emitter that emits light toward the liquid in the pipette
an image capturing device that captures an image of the liquid in the pipette; and
a detecting device that detects a level of a liquid surface of the liquid in the pipette based on the image of the liquid captured by the image capturing device.

2. The liquid surface detecting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the image capturing device is provided on an optical axis of the light emitted by the light emitter and specularly reflected by the liquid surface of the liquid.

3. The liquid surface detecting apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a determination device that determines whether or not an appropriate amount of liquid is retained in the pipette based on the level of the liquid surface of the liquid detected by the detecting device.

4. The liquid surface detecting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the light emitter and the image capturing device are provided on the same side with respect to the pipette.

5. The liquid surface detecting apparatus according to claim 4 , wherein
the image capturing device is provided at a position such that the light, emitted by the light emitter and reflected by a curved portion of the liquid surface of the liquid, directly enters the image capturing device.

6. The liquid surface detecting apparatus according to claim 4 , further comprising:
a light shielding member that is provided on an opposite side with respect to the pipette from the light emitter and the image capturing device and that shields light, among the light emitted by the light emitter toward the liquid, which enters the image capturing device after being reflected at a position other than the liquid surface of the liquid.

7. The liquid surface detecting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the image capturing device is capable of capturing an image of volumes of liquid retained in the retained sections at one time, and
the light emitter includes light emitting elements in a direction of arrangement of the volumes of liquid when the image capturing device captures the image of the volumes of liquid.

8. The liquid surface detecting apparatus according to claim 1 , further comprising:
a storing section with the liquid stored therein.

9. The liquid surface detecting apparatus according to claim 1 , wherein
the pipette is included in a hand section of a robot.

10. A method of detecting a liquid surface, comprising:
aspirating a liquid through a pipette, the liquid comprising a sample or reagent;
emitting light toward the liquid in the pipette;
capturing an image of the liquid at a position such that the light, emitted in the light emission and reflected by a liquid surface of the liquid, directly enters the image capturing device; and
detecting a level of the liquid surface of the liquid based on the image of the liquid captured in the image capturing.

Assignees

• Kawasaki Heavy Ind Ltd
• Sysmex Corp

Inventors

• Iwasaki Yukio
• Ouchi Satoshi
• Mitsui Eiji
• Matsuoka Junichi
• Hasegawa Takehiro

Classifications

• G01N35/1009 Primary

  Characterised by arrangements for controlling the aspiration or dispense of liquids · CPC title

• G06T7/62

  of area, perimeter, diameter or volume · CPC title

• G06T7/0006

  using a design-rule based approach · CPC title

• G06T2207/30004

  Biomedical image processing · CPC title

• G01N2035/1025

  Fluid level sensing · CPC title