DEVICE AND METHOD FOR DETECTING MICROORGANISMS

摘要

An apparatus and method for mixing/agitating microorganism culture bottles includes a wheel (12) in which culture bottles (20) are placed, with the wheel (12) being set at an angle from vertical so that bottles are not inverted during rotation. A sensor such as a fluorescence or colorimetric sensor for carbon dioxide is disposed along the flat bottom surface of each of the bottles (20). Once during each revolution the bottles (20) pass across a photodiode (30) light emitting diode (31) pair (for a colorimetric system). A sensor transmits light emitted by the LED (31) to the photodiode (30). At the same instant, an infrared reflective object sensor, emitting on a digital rotary encoder (39), determines the bottle number. The change in sensor transmittance is directly related to cell growth so that bottles positive for growth can be detected by suitable software.