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.
Claims14
A slide rack determination system, comprising:
- a slide rack clamp apparatus configured to hold a slide rack and having an engagement surface configured to engage an engagement surface of the slide rack during processing of the slide rack by a digital slide scanning apparatus;
- one or more sensors on the clamp apparatus configured and positioned 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, the at least one feature comprising one or more protrusions or recesses at one or more locations on a side of the slide rack or at a perimeter edge of a top surface of the slide rack, such that the at least one feature identifies the slide rack;
- and
- at least one hardware processor configured to receive an output from the one or more sensors, and, based on the received output, 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 positioned on a clamp apparatus and 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 on the clamp apparatus of the digital slide scanning apparatus, the at least one feature comprising one or more protrusions or recesses on a side or at a top of the slide rack;
- and,
- based on the received output from the one or more sensors, identifying the slide rack.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.