A culture apparatus, comprising:
- a culture room for culturing cells under a predetermined culture environment;
- an imaging device that is configured to capture an inspection image showing one of a state of a culture container that holds the cells or a state of the cells;
- and
- a controller that:
- detects completion of a culture operation of at least one peripheral device used in the culture operation of the cells,
- controls the imaging device to capture the inspection image after the completion of the culture operation, and
- analyzes the inspection image obtained after the completion of the culture operation to determine whether or not the culture operation by the at least one peripheral device is appropriate,
- wherein when the at least one peripheral device comprises a washer:
- (a) the culture operation comprises sucking the culture medium from the culture container;
- and
- (b) the analysis of the inspection image comprises determining whether or not the culture medium is left within the culture container by either:
- (i) measuring the ratio of the area of a color region to the area of the bottom of the culture container and comparing it to a predetermined value;
- or
- (ii) estimating a liquid surface height of the culture medium by using a parallax between an outline of the liquid surface and an outline of the bottom surface of the culture container and comparing the estimated liquid surface height and a standard value,
- wherein when the at least one of the peripheral device comprises a dispenser:
- (a) the culture operation comprises dispensing a culture medium into the culture container;
- and
- (b) the analysis of the inspection image comprises either:
- (i) determining whether or not the culture medium is left within the culture container by measuring the ratio of the area of a color region to the area of the bottom of the culture containing and comparing it to a predetermined value;
- (ii) determining whether or not the culture medium is left within the culture containing by estimated a liquid surface height of the culture medium by using a parallax between an outline of the liquid surface and an outline of the bottom surface of the culture container and comparing the estimated liquid surface height and a standard value;
- or
- (iii) determining whether or not an appropriate culture medium is left within the culture container by determining the life, death or activation of the culture cells in the image,
- wherein when the at least one of the peripheral device comprises a centrifuge:
- (a) the culture operation comprises centrifuging the culture container;
- and
- (b) the analysis of the inspection image comprises either:
- (i) counting the number of cells in the inspection image and determining whether or not a number of cells in the image has changed by a threshold value or greater than the threshold value;
- or
- (ii) determining the presence or absence of damage to the cells by determining the life, death or activation of the culture cells in the image,
- wherein when the at least one of the peripheral device comprises a cell picker:
- (a) the culture operation comprises picking part or all of target colonies of the culture cells;
- and
- (b) the analysis of the inspection image comprises extracting the outline image of the colonies from the image and calculating information of the shape of the colonies, information on the area of the colonies, or information on the brightness distribution of the colonies in the image;
- wherein when the at least one of the peripheral device comprises a pipette:
- (a) the culture operation comprises spraying previously picked colonies into the culture container;
- and
- (b) the analysis of the inspection image comprises determining the form of the culture cells in the image,
- wherein when the at least one of the peripheral device comprises a shaker:
- (a) the culture operation comprises shaking the culture container;
- and
- (b) the analysis of the inspection image comprises dividing the image into a plurality of regions and determining the secondary moment of the image for each divided region,
- wherein when the at least one of the peripheral device comprises a slide holder unit:
- (a) the culture operation comprises supplying an unused culture container;
- and
- (b) the analysis of the inspection image comprises determining that the slide holder unit is not present in the image, and
- wherein when the at least one of the peripheral device comprises an auto-sealer:
- (a) the culture operation comprises sealing the culture container;
- and
- (b) the analysis of the inspection image comprises determining that the culture container is not sealed in the image.