Real-time tracking and correlation of microspheres
AssigneeLuminex Corporation
InventorsAdam Schilffarth, Matthew Fisher
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
Methods and apparatuses for tracking and correlating particles include an optical detector that captures a first and a second image of the particles. A video detector is used to capture a plurality of video frames of the particles. The video detector captures the video frames of the particles at a rate faster than the rate at which images are captured by the optical detector to track the movement of particles. A first image position of a particle in the first image of the particles is identified, and then the first image position of the particle is correlated to a second image position of the particle in the second image using the plurality of video frames.
Claims18
A method for correlating a position of a cell in a first image with a position of the cell in a second image, comprising:
- capturing, using an optical detector, a first and a second image of one or more cells;
- capturing, using a video detector, a plurality of video frames of the one or more cells;
- identifying, using a processor, a first image position of a cell in the first image of the one or more cells;
- transforming the identified first image position of the cell in the first image from a position in an image coordinate system to a position in a video frame coordinate system to identify a first video frame position of the plurality of video frames;
- identifying a cell with a position in the identified first video frame that is closest to the first video frame position;
- tracking the movement of the cell from the first video frame to a second video frame to locate a second video frame position of the cell in the second video frame;
- and
- inverse transforming the second video frame position in the video frame coordinate system to a position in the image coordinate system to identify a second image position of the cell in the second image.
An apparatus, comprising:
- an imaging region configured to hold one or more cells;
- a light radiating device configured to illuminate the one or more cells in the imaging region;
- an optical detector configured to capture a first and second image of the one or more cells;
- a video detector configured to capture a plurality of video frames of the one or more cells;
- and
- a processor, coupled to the optical detector and the video detector, configured to:
- identify a first image position of a cell in the first image of the one or more cells;
- transform the identified first image position of the cell in the first image from a position in an image coordinate system to a position in a video frame coordinate system to identify a first video frame position of the plurality of video frames;
- identify a cell with a position in the identified first video frame that is closest to the first video frame position;
- track the movement of the cell from the first video frame to a second video frame having a time stamp that is closest to a time stamp of the second image to locate a second video frame position of the cell in the second video frame;
- and
- inverse transform the second video frame position in the second video frame from a position in the video frame coordinate system to a position in the image coordinate system to identify a second image position of the cell in the second image.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.