Colony contrast gathering
AssigneeBd Kiestra B.V.
InventorsTimothy M. Wiles, Raphael Rodolphe Marcelpoil
Life of this patent
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Abstract
An imaging system and method for microbial growth detection, counting or identification. One colony may be contrasted in an image that is not optimal for another type of colony. The system and method provides contrast from all available material through space (spatial differences), time (differences appearing over time for a given capture condition) and color space transformation using image input information over time to assess whether microbial growth has occurred for a given sample.
Claims16
1-51. (canceled)
A system for identifying growth in a culture media inoculated with a biological sample and disposed in an optically transparent container, the system comprising:
- an image acquisition device for capturing digital images of the culture media;
- memory storing information regarding the captured digital images;
- and
- one or more processors operable to execute instructions to perform the following instructions:
- when an inoculated culture media received from an incubator is received into the image acquisition device, obtaining a first digital image of the inoculated culture media at a first time (to), the first digital image having a plurality of pixels;
- determining coordinates of the pixels in the first digital image relative to the optically transparent container carrying the inoculated culture media;
- upon further incubation of the inoculated culture media, the inoculated culture media is again received into the image acquisition device and the one or more processors execute the following steps:
- obtaining a second digital image of the inoculated culture media at a second time (tx), the second digital image having a plurality of pixels;
- aligning the first digital image with the second digital image, such that the coordinates of a pixel in the second digital image correspond to the coordinates of a corresponding pixel in the first digital image;
- comparing the pixels of the second digital image with corresponding pixels of the first digital image;
- identifying pixels that changed between the first digital image and the second digital image, wherein the pixels that have not changed between the first digital image and the second digital image are indicative of background;
- determining which of the identified pixels in the second digital image have a predetermined level of threshold contrast with the pixels that are indicative of background;
- identifying one or more objects in the second digital image, each object consisting of pixels that meet the predetermined level of threshold contrast and that are not separated from each other by background pixels;
- for at least one of the identified objects, determining a morphology of the object from the pixels of the object;
- and
- from the morphology of the object, determining whether the object is a colony candidate;
- and providing to memory the coordinates of the pixels associated with the object.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.