An occupancy grid object determining device is provided, which may include a grid generator configured to generate an occupancy grid of a predetermined region, the occupancy grid including a plurality of grid cells and at least some of the grid cells having been assigned an information about the occupancy of the region represented by the respective grid cell, a determiner configured to determine at least one object in the occupancy grid wherein the at least one object includes a plurality of grid cells, and a remover configured to remove occupancy information from at least one grid cell of the plurality of grid cells of the determined object.

A microfluidic multiple channel particle analysis system which allows particles from a plurality of particle sources to be independently simultaneously entrained in a corresponding plurality of fluid streams for analysis and sorting into particle subpopulations based upon one or more particle characteristics.

Measurement device for the detection and/or analysis of fluid-borne particles, the measurement device comprising means (1, 1) for producing a flow of fluid along a fluid flow path, a laser (2) positioned for emitting a beam (20) of laser light in a measurement volume of the fluid flow path; a lens set (3) for collecting laser light (23) scattered in the measurement volume by fluid-borne particles (9) contained in the flow of fluid, a photo-detector (4) positioned for the detection of scattered laser light (23) collected by the lens set (3), wherein the lens set (3) is configured for focusing the scattered light (23) in a line at a focal distance (f2) of the lens set (3), said line being perpendicular to a flow direction (y) of the flow of fluid in said measurement volume; and wherein the photo-detector (4) is a linear multipixel detector for capturing the laser light focused by the lens set (3), wherein said linear multipixel detector (4) is positioned at a distance from the focal distance (f2) of the lens set (3) and oriented with its longitudinal axis parallel to said line. Measurement method for the detection and/or analysis of fluid-borne particles, comprising the steps of producing a flow of fluid along a fluid flow path, said flow of fluid potentially containing fluid-borne particles (9) to be detected; emitting a beam (20) of laser light in a measurement volume of the fluid flow path; collecting laser light (23) scattered in the measurement volume by fluid-borne particles (9) contained in the flow of fluid and focusing said scattered light in a line at a focal distance (f2), said line being perpendicular to a flow direction (y) of the flow of fluid in said measurement volume; capturing the collected and focused scattered laser light (23) with a linear multipixel photo-detector (4) positioned at a distance from the focal distance (f2) and oriented with its longitudinal axis parallel to said line; repeating the steps of emitting, collecting and capturing a plurality of times during the time of crossing the measurement volume by an individual fluid-borne particle (9) of the smallest size measured by the measurement method.

A system to evaluate an embryo is provided. The system includes a measurement chamber having a bottom end. The measurement chamber is configured to receive an embryo such that the embryo descends towards the bottom end, and a culture medium is disposed within the measurement chamber. At least one sensor is configured to assess the embryo descending towards the bottom end and output a data signal representative of at least one characteristic of the embryo descending through at least a portion of the measurement chamber. A processor receives the data signal from the at least one sensor and determines one or more embryo properties based on the at least one characteristic.

A method for measuring microscopic object velocities in fluid flow in a capillary tube including scanning a microscope focal plane through a fluid filled space for objects, where the scanning follows an interrupted repeating pattern having sub-patterns where the sub-patterns position the microscope focus plane beginning at a selected focus position at a first time and ending at the selected focus position at a later second time. A sensor registers images in image frames during the scanning. A first object image is registered in a first image frame at the selected focus position and a second object image is registered in a second image frame at the selected focus position. The object in the first object image and the second object image are identified as the same object. A processor determines a velocity for the identified object.

A system and method for dispense characterization is disclosed. According to particular embodiments of the dispense characterization system and method, volumes of dispensed liquids can be determined. In more particular embodiments, additional characteristics and combinations of characteristics of a liquid dispensing event can be determined. Examples of additional characteristics that can be determined include the shape of the dispensing event, the velocity of the dispensing event, and the trajectory of the dispensing event. The dispense characterization system and method can be employed in automated biological sample analysis systems, and are particularly suited for monitoring liquid reagent dispensing events that deliver liquid reagents to a surface of a microscope slide holding a biological sample.

Provided are methods and systems that characterize a property of a particle suspended in a fluid sample in a label-free manner. Detection elements are provided fluidically adjacent upstream and downstream from a modulation element. Fluid sample containing particles flows across a first detection element and a first particle parameter detected for each particle that passes the first detection element or a first aggregate particle parameter for a plurality of particles that pass the first detection element. The particles flow from the first detection element to a first modulation element, wherein the first modulation element effects a change in a property of the particles flowing past the first modulation element. A second detection element then detects the particle parameter again or a second aggregate particle parameter for a plurality of particles that pass the second detection element. Comparing the first and second particle or aggregate parameters thereby characterizes the particle property.

An annular fluid-filled sample chamber is used to provide observation of unbounded motion of objects in the fluid. Rotation of the sample chamber is under automatic control to compensate for azimuthal motion of the object, thereby keeping the object in a fixed field of view of an optical observation system. Further motion control can be provided in the radial and focus directions, which can be used to provide full 3D tracking of objects as they move in the fluid. An important application of this work is to observation and tracking of objects that move up or down in the fluid with respect to gravity.

A system and method for determining a trajectory parameter of particles, comprising receiving a plurality of particles at a microfluidic channel, applying a force to each particle of the microfluidic channel, acquiring a dataset of each particle, measuring a trajectory of the particle, and determining a trajectory parameter of the particles.

A measurement device includes: a vision sensor that is arranged facing an illumination surface of an illumination unit emitting light, and acquires pixel data asynchronously in accordance with the amount of light incident on each of a plurality of pixels arranged two-dimensionally; an imaging control unit that causes the vision sensor to capture an image; and a measurement unit that measures information related to a target object on the basis of the image captured by the imaging unit.