Patent Grant
8195408
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a method for setting up a system, and in particular to a method for setting up a system of a reagent chip analyzer.
2. The Prior Arts
Biochemistry test is now a routine item of health check. Also, for the purpose of avoiding the damage caused by improper use of drugs or maintaining the fairness of sport competitions, test reagents are used by governmental departments or private enterprises for checking physical situations or detecting drug addictions.
A currently used test reagent is a reagent chip for checking urine, or blood, or serum. The reagent chip is a strip-shaped chip fabricated by biotechnology. The reagent chip is adapted for immunoassay whose result can be directly identified by naked eyes, according to the characteristic conjunction between antigens and antibodies. Unfortunately, assembly errors of the reagent chip often cause difficulties for alignment of lines. Therefore, the correctness of reading the result is often relied upon inspector's experience, and is often uncertain. Especially when a single color reaction line is weak and blur, test results obtained by different inspectors are often different.
As a solution, current inspections to the reagent chip are usually conducted by charge-coupled device (CCD) or complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensors with corresponding software. The CCD or CMOS image sensor obtains an image of the color development on the reagent chip. The image is then inputted in a computer having a standardized color comparison program for comparing the color development on the reagent chip with the standardized color and obtaining the test result.
There are developed many types of reagent chips, such as a square flake chip. Usually, a conventional reagent chip analyzer is adapted for analyzing preselected reagent chips, e.g., of a certain specification. In such a reagent chip analyzer, the specification and analysis parameters of the reagent chips are preset or prestored in the reagent chip analyzer, and cannot be modified by the operator. Further, the conventional reagent chip analyzer often includes data of a certain reagent chip, and is adapted for testing the certain reagent chip and the test condition only.
An objective of the present invention is to provide a method for setting up a system of a reagent chip analyzer. The method is adapted to modify parameters and testing conditions according to data of an authorization tag, so as to improve the adaptability range of the reagent chip analyzer for reagent chips of multiple specifications.
Another objective of the present invention is to provide a method for setting up a system of a reagent chip analyzer. The method is adapted for eliminating unintended change to setting up statuses of the reagent chip analyzer by reading an identification code and authorization times stored in a radio frequency identification (RFID) tag, and counting the quantity of tested reagent chips by reading the authorization times.
For achieving the foregoing objectives, the present invention provides a method for setting up a reagent chip analyzer, adapted for testing a reagent chip according to an authorization tag, the authorization tag being an RFID tag. The method includes: reading an identification code, authorization times, and a specification and analysis parameters of the reagent chip from the RFID tag; determining whether to load the specification and the analysis parameters of the reagent chip according to the identification code and the authorization times; and if it is determined to load the specification and the analysis parameters of the reagent chip, decreasing the authorization times by one, and analyzing the reagent chip according to the specification and the analysis parameters of the reagent chip.
The method for setting up a reagent chip analyzer according to the present invention is adapted for adaptively testing multiple specifications of reagent chips by adjusting analysis parameters and testing conditions, so as to improve the adaptability of the reagent chip analyzer. The method according to the present invention is also adapted for eliminating unintended change to setting up statuses of the reagent chip analyzer, and for obtaining the number of the tested reagent chips by counting the authorization times.
The present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art by reading the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment thereof, with reference to the attached drawings, in which:
The accompanying drawings are included to provide a further understanding of the invention, and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this specification. The drawings illustrate embodiments of the invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention.
Then, referring to
After reading the identification code, the system enters step 114, in which it is determined whether the identification code coincides with a preset code; if the identification code cannot be identified, or is determined as incompliant with the preset code, the system conducts step 115 to indicate mistake information on a screen. The mistake information reminds that the inserted RFID tag is not a legally authorized tag. When it is identified that the identification code is legally authorized or complies with the preset code, the system conducts step 116. The authorization times, which are the number of times that the reagent chip analyzer is allowed to test the reagent chip, are determined at step 116. Only when the number of the authorization times is greater than 0, i.e., the remaining number of times is greater than 0, the system enters a next step 118. Otherwise, the system enters step 117 to indicate information on the screen, e.g., indicating that the number of authorization times is 0 to remind the operator to obtain more authorization times for processing the reagent chip test.
At step 118, the specification and the analysis parameters of the reagent chip are loaded, or one kind of the reagent chip data recorded in the RFID tag is selected. The method for setting up a system of a reagent chip analyzer requires that only after identifying the identification code and confirming that the number of authorization times is greater than 0, the reagent chip analyzer enters step 118. After loading the specification and the analysis parameters, at step 122, the system updates and decreases the authorization times, e.g., minus 1 from the authorization times, feeds the decreased authorization times back to the RFID tag and records therein.
Thereafter, at step 124, the reagent chip is analyzed until the test ends. If there is another reagent chip of the same specification for test, the step 124 is repeated until the test ends.
After the test ends, if there is a further reagent chip of another specification to be tested, the system returns back to the step 110 to select another authorization tag or read another reagent chip data from the RFID tag. In such a way, the reagent chip analyzer is capable of modifying parameters and testing conditions for analyzing a reagent chip of another specification.
If at step 126, the operator terminates the operation of the system, then the system enters step 128 to turn off the RFID tag reader.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments thereof, it is apparent to those skilled in the art that a variety of modifications and changes may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention which is intended to be defined by the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 96132910 A | Sep 2007 | TW | national |
| Number | Name | Date | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 7667603 | Bolander et al. | Feb 2010 | B2 |
| 20050009122 | Whelan et al. | Jan 2005 | A1 |
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20090058617 A1 | Mar 2009 | US |
