Microfluidic device observation device and microfluidic device observation method

A microfluidic-device observation apparatus for observing a specimen present in a plurality of flow paths arranged in a microfluidic device, comprising:

• an imaging unit configured to acquire an image of the microfluidic device;
• an extraction pixel selection unit configured to select extraction pixels from a plurality of pixels constituting the acquired image by a certain criterion based on luminance values of the plurality of pixels;
• a flow path identification unit configured to locate the plurality of flow paths included in the image;
• a specimen-featured-pixels detection unit configured to detect specimen-featured-pixels which have a certain number or more of extraction pixels consecutively present in the plurality of identified flow paths;
• and
• a statistical feature value calculation unit configured to calculate a statistical feature value of the specimen-featured-pixels group based on a number and/or a shape of the specimen-featured-pixels group.

A microfluidic-device observation apparatus for observing a specimen present in a plurality of flow paths arranged in a microfluidic device, comprising:

• an imaging unit configured to acquire an image of the microfluidic device;
• a flow path identification unit configured to locate the plurality of flow paths included in the image;
• and
• an identification unit constructed by machine learning using the image of the microfluidic device in which the specimen is present in the flow paths and the number and/or the shape of the specimen in the image as training data, the identification unit being configured to identify the number and/or the shape of the specimen present in each of the plurality of identified flow paths when the acquired image is input.

A microfluidic-device observation method for observing bacteria introduced together with an agent into a plurality of flow paths arranged in a microfluidic device, the method comprising:

• obtaining an image of a microfluidic device;
• selecting extraction pixels from a plurality of pixels by a certain criterion based on luminance values of the plurality of pixels constituting the acquired image;
• identifying positions of the plurality of flow paths included in the image;
• detecting a prescribed number or more of extraction pixels consecutively present in the plurality of identified flow paths as a specimen-featured-pixels group;
• and
• obtaining a statistical feature value of the specimen-featured-pixels group based on a number and/or a shape of the specimen-featured-pixels group.

A microfluidic-device observation method for observing bacteria introduced together with an agent into a plurality of flow paths arranged in a microfluidic device, the method comprising:

• acquiring an image of the microfluidic device;
• identifying positions of the plurality of flow paths included in the image;
• and
• identifying a number and/or a shape of the bacteria present in the plurality of identified flow paths according to an input of the acquired image.