Slide rack determination system
AssigneeLeica Biosystems Imaging, Inc.
InventorsNicholas Newberg, Prentash Djelosevic
Life of this patent
Estimating the term…
Abstract
A slide rack determination system for a digital slide scanning apparatus. In an embodiment, a motor drives a slide rack at a known rate toward an engagement surface. The elapsed time until engagement may be used to detect the presence or absence of the slide rack and/or the height of the slide rack. In addition, one or more sensors may detect one or more features of the slide rack, and these feature(s) may be used to determine the presence or absence of a slide rack, whether usage of the slide rack is supported or unsupported by the digital slide scanning apparatus, the orientation of the slide rack, and/or the manufacturer and/or model of the slide rack.
Claims20
A slide rack determination system comprising:
- a slide rack engagement surface configured to engage an engagement surface of a slide rack during processing of a slide rack by a digital slide scanning apparatus;
- one or more sensors configured to sense at least one feature of the slide rack while the engagement surface of the slide rack is engaged with the slide rack engagement surface, wherein at least one of the one or more sensors is configured to sense an engagement between the slide rack engagement surface and the engagement surface of the slide rack;
- a motor configured to drive the slide rack along a linear axis within the digital slide scanning apparatus towards the slide rack engagement surface;
- and
- at least one hardware processor configured to
- activate the motor,
- receive an output from the one or more sensors,
- based on an output from the at least one sensor, deactivate the motor,
- determine a time period between activation of the motor and the engagement between the slide rack engagement surface and the engagement surface of the slide rack,
- determine a height of the slide rack based on the time period, and,
- based on the received output and the determined height of the slide rack, identify the slide rack.
A method comprising, by at least one hardware processor of a digital slide scanning apparatus:
- receiving output from one or more sensors configured to sense at least one feature of a slide rack while an engagement surface of the slide rack is engaged with a slide rack engagement surface of the digital slide scanning apparatus, wherein at least one of the one or more sensors is configured to sense an engagement between the slide rack engagement surface and the engagement surface of the slide rack;
- activating a motor configured to drive the slide rack along a linear axis within the digital slide scanning apparatus towards the slide rack engagement surface;
- based on an output from the at least one sensor, deactivating the motor;
- determining a time period between activation of the motor and the engagement between the slide rack engagement surface and the engagement surface of the slide rack;
- determining a height of the slide rack based on the time period;
- and,
- based on the received output from the one or more sensors and the determined height of the slide rack, identifying the slide rack.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.