METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR PERFORMING AND QUANTIFYING COLOR CHANGES INDUCED BY SPECIFIC CONCENTRATIONS OF BIOLOGICAL ANALYTES IN AN AUTOMATICALLY CALIBRATED ENVIRONMENT

摘要

Methods and electronic devices for performing color-based reaction testing of biological materials. The method includes capturing and interpreting digital images of an unexposed and later exposed paddle at various delay times within an automatically calibrated environment. The test paddle includes a unique identification mechanism (UID), a Reference Color Bar (RCB) providing samples of standardized colors for image color calibration, compensation and corrections, and several test-specific sequences of Chemical Test Pads (CTP). The method further includes locating the paddle in the image, extracting the UID and validating the paddle, extracting the RCB and locating the plurality of CTP in each image. The method further reduces image noise in the CTP and calibrates the image automatically according to lighting measurements performed on the RCB. To determine test results, the method further determines several distances between the CTP and its possible trajectory in the color space described by the Manufacturer Interpretation Color Chart.

主权项

1. A computer-implemented method for quantifying color change of at least one test medium on a diagnostic instrument, the method comprising:
capturing a digital image of at least a portion of the diagnostic instrument, which has been exposed to a biological sample, the diagnostic instrument comprising at least one color reference comprising a plurality of reference samples of different colors and at least one test medium containing a reagent, which changes color in the presence of particular analytes in the biological sample; identifying at least one of the reference samples for the at least one medium in the diagnostic instrument; determining a dominant camera-captured color of a reference sample and a dominant camera-captured color of the at least one test medium; color correcting the dominant camera-captured color of the at least one test medium based on a correction factor derived at least in part from the dominant camera-captured color of the reference sample to determine a corrected test medium color; and comparing the corrected test medium color to a set of possible test medium colors corresponding to predetermined analyte concentrations to determine a test result including an analyte concentration of the biological sample being tested.