The present invention relates to a test strip detecting carrier, a test strip detecting system and a test strip detecting method, and more particularly, to a test strip detecting carrier, a test strip detecting system and a test strip detecting method for quickly performing image positioning correction and colorimetric calibration through a mobile communication device.
With the development of medical testing technology, many applications of rapid diagnostic test strips have been developed accordingly, such as urine test strips, influenza test strips and COVID-19 test strips, in order to help users to quickly conduct diagnostic tests and obtain preliminary disease screening results. A common detection method is to contact the corresponding test strip with the specimen to be tested, and then compare the color displayed by the test strip with the color scale on the colorimetric plate to determine the test result.
The early technology relies on human eyes to compare the color displayed on the test strip with the color scale on the colorimetric plate. However, the manual comparison process is prone to the problem of interpretation errors in colorimetry. In order for accuracy and objectivity, the industry has developed a method of applying computer vision instead of human eyes to interpret test results. In the method, the user needs to capture an image including the colorimetric plate and the test strip, and interpret the test result through image recognition. However, in this process, the detecting accuracy is often affected by image interpretation errors caused by factors such as tilt of the shooting angle, shaking or uneven light reception. Therefore, in the prior art, complicated positioning and coordinate correction procedures are applied to the captured image, and the relevant information of the colorimetric plate and the test strip are obtained respectively to perform the color level comparison for image interpretation. In this situation, a huge amount of computation and time spend is required to obtain accurate detection results. In addition, the prior art uses specific devices to fix the test strip or image capture device to limit the light source or shooting angle so as to obtain an image with better quality or to save the time required for positioning and calibration, which takes additional devices and increases additional costs for inspection. Therefore, there is a need for improvement over the prior art.
Therefore, the present invention is to provide a test strip detecting carrier, a test strip detecting system and a test strip detecting method that use a mobile communication device to detect a test strip, which may quickly perform image positioning correction, colorimetric calibration to obtain detecting results, thereby improving the shortcomings of the prior art.
An embodiment of the present invention discloses a test strip detecting carrier for a test strip detecting system, comprising a container structure, used for containing a test strip; at least two positioning markers, formed at two sides of the container structure; and a plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks, embedded inside the at least two positioning markers; wherein the test strip reacts with a specimen to generate at least one color block.
An embodiment of the present invention discloses a test strip detecting system, comprising a test strip detecting carrier and a mobile communication device. The test strip detecting carrier comprises a container structure, at least two positioning markers and a plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks, wherein the container structure is used for containing a test strip, the test strip reacts with a specimen to generate at least one color block, the at least two positioning markers are formed at two sides of the container structure, and the plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks are embedded inside the at least two positioning marker. The mobile communication device comprises an image capturing unit; a processing unit, configured to execute a program code; and a storage unit, coupled to the processing unit to store the program code, wherein the program code is configured to instruct the processing unit to execute a test strip detecting method. The test strip detecting method comprises controlling the image capturing unit to capture an original image of the test strip placed in the test strip detecting carrier, and to store the original image in the storage unit; detecting the at least two positioning markers in the original image to obtain a plurality of coordinates of the at least two positioning markers; performing image coordinate calibration according to the plurality of coordinates to generate a calibrated image; and performing colorimetric calibration for the color blocks and the plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks according to the calibrated image so as to generate a test result.
An embodiment of the present invention discloses a test strip detecting method for a test strip detecting system, wherein a test strip detecting carrier of the test strip detecting system comprises a container structure, at least two positioning markers and a plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks, wherein the container structure is used for containing a test strip, the test strip reacts with a specimen to generate at least one color block, the at least two positioning markers are formed at two sides of the container structure, and the plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks are embedded inside the at least two positioning marker. The test strip detecting method comprises controlling the image capturing unit to capture an original image of the test strip placed in the test strip detecting carrier, and to store the original image in the storage unit; detecting the at least two positioning markers in the original image to obtain a plurality of coordinates of the at least two positioning markers; performing image coordinate calibration according to the plurality of coordinates to generate a calibrated image; and performing colorimetric calibration for the color blocks and the plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks according to the calibrated image so as to generate a test result.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claims to refer to particular components. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, hardware manufacturers may refer to a component by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following description and in the claims, the terms “include” and “comprise” are utilized in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “include, but not limited to”.
Please refer to
Specifically, as shown in
The mobile communication device 14 may be a smart phone, comprising a processing unit 140, a storage unit 142 and an image capturing unit 144. The image capturing unit 144 may be a front camera or a rear camera of the smart phone, and is used to capture the original image including the color blocks 120 of the test strip 12, the positioning marker 100A, the positioning marker 100B and the colorimetric calibration blocks. The processing unit 140 may be a microprocessor, and generates a test result from the original image captured by the image capturing unit 144 through programs such as positioning, coordinate correction, and colorimetric calibration. The storage unit 142 may be any data storage device for storing the original image captured by the image capturing unit 144 and a program code 1420, and the program code 1420 is read and executed by the processing unit 140. In an embodiment, the mobile communication device 14 may upload the original image captured by the image capturing unit 144, and the detecting result to the cloud server 16; in another embodiment, the mobile communication device 14 may only upload the original image captured by the image capturing unit 144 to the cloud server 16 and obtain the detecting result through cloud computing. The cloud server 16 may comprise a cloud database for storing test data and historical records such as test images and test results. By cooperating with medical institutions, the test data may be incorporated into medical records as a basis for diagnosis and treatment.
The test strip detecting method according to the embodiment of the present invention may be summarized into a process 3, as shown in
Step 300: Start.
Step 302: Control the image capturing unit 144 to capture an original image of the test strip 12 placed in the test strip detecting carrier 10, and to store the original image in the storage unit 142.
Step 304: Detect the positioning markers 100A and 100B in the original image to obtain a plurality of coordinates of the positioning markers 100A and 100B.
Step 306: Perform image coordinate calibration according to the plurality of coordinates to generate a calibrated image.
Step 308: Perform colorimetric calibration for the color blocks 120 and the plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks according to the calibrated image so as to generate a test result. Step 310: End.
In the process 3, after placing the test strip 12 in the test strip detecting carrier 10, the user captures an original image including the test strip detecting carrier 10 and the test strip 12 through the mobile communication device 14, and then the original image is stored in the storage processing unit 142 (Step 302). The mobile communication device 14 detects the positioning markers 100A and 100B in the original image so as to obtain a plurality of coordinates of the two positioning markers (Step 304). After obtaining the plurality of coordinates, the image coordinate correction may be performed accordingly to obtain a calibrated image (Step 306). Finally, according to the calibrated image, the colorimetric calibration between the color blocks 120 and the plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks may be performed to generate a test result. It should be noted that, the plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks are embedded inside the positioning marker 100A and the positioning marker 100B, and therefore when the positioning markers 100A and 100B are detected, the relevant information of the plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks is also obtained. No additional detection and positioning of the plurality of colorimetric calibrating blocks are performed. Accordingly, the time spent for testing the test strip may be shortened to improve the shortcomings of the conventional technology.
In detail, in Step 302, the user captures the original image including the test strip detecting carrier 10 and the test strip 12 through the mobile communication device 14 and stores the original image in the storage unit 142. In Step 304, the mobile communication device 14 detects the positioning markers 100A and 100B in the original image to obtain a plurality of coordinates of the two positioning markers. In the case that the positioning markers 100A and 100B cannot be detected, the mobile communication device 14 may prompt the user to perform Step 302 again through an output unit, such as a screen or a speaker, to obtain an available original image.
Please refer to
In an embodiment, the positioning markers 100A and 100B include embedded colorimetric calibrating blocks A1-A4 that respectively replace the position of a white color block in the inner binary matrix of the ArUco marker and are used for colorimetric calibration with the color blocks 120. A plurality of white color blocks B adjacent to the colorimetric calibrating blocks A1-A4 are used as reference background values for correcting the chromatic deviation caused by the ambient light source. While designing the positioning marks, the colorimetric calibrating blocks A1-A4 should be separated from each other and adjacent to the white color blocks B, so that the contrast is obvious so as to be beneficial to the discrimination and improve the accuracy. In an embodiment, the colors used for the colorimetric calibrating blocks A1-A4 are shown in
In Step 304, after detecting the positioning markers 100A and 100B in the original image, the mobile communication device 14 may obtain a plurality of coordinates of the two positioning markers. The plurality of coordinates may be coordinates C1-C8 corresponding to the four vertices of the positioning markers 100A and 100B respectively as shown in
After obtaining the coordinates C1-C8 in Step 304, image coordinate correction may be performed to obtain a calibrated image according to the coordinates C1-C8 in Step 306. In an embodiment, perspective transformation may be adopted to perform image coordinate correction. The purpose of the perspective transformation is to suppress image distortion, which may avoid misjudging the test results of specimen due to the skewed angle of image acquisition by the user. In this step, a range including at least the color blocks 120 is selected as a region of interest (ROI), thereby eliminating unnecessary environmental interference. Through perspective transformation, the obtained ROI may be in a square and vertical state.
In Step 308, according to the calibrated image obtained in Step 306 and the color data of the colorimetric calibrating blocks obtained in Step 304, the calorimetric calibration may be performed to generate the test result. The method of performing colorimetric calibration to generate test results may be summarized as a process 6 as shown in
Step 600: Start.
Step 602: Perform edge detection.
Step 604: Determine whether the C-line is detected. If yes, go to Step 606; otherwise, go to Step 608.
Step 606: Determine whether the T-line is detected. If yes, got to Step 610; otherwise, go to Step 612.
Step 608: Determine the test result as “invalid”.
Step 610: Determine the test result as “positive”, and continue to Step 614.
Step 612: Determine the test result as “negative”.
Step 614: Calculate the grayscale value of the T-line and perform interpolation comparison between the grayscale value of the T-line and the grayscale value of the colorimetric calibrating blocks so as to obtain the reference concentration of the specimen.
Step 616: End.
In detail, please refer to
Note that, in the above embodiments, the test strip for lateral fluid immunochromatography assays is used as an example; however, it is not limited thereto. In addition, the above embodiments use two positioning markers and four kinds of colorimetric calibrating blocks as examples, and are not limited thereto. For example, the test strip 12 may be a test strip with multiple specimens, such as a urine test strip for ten items. The urine test strip may measure glucose, protein, leukocyte esterase, urobilinogen, PH, density, occult blood, ketone bodies, nitrite and leukocytes in urine at the same time, and different specimens correspond to different color blocks 120. Those skilled in the art may design the corresponding color and quantity for colorimetric calibrating blocks according to the requirements of color blocks reacted with the specimen, and may also use positioning markers with different resolutions or different numbers according to the required quantity for colorimetric calibrating blocks. Through the technology of embedding the colorimetric calibrating blocks in the positioning marker, additional detection and positioning of the colorimetric calibrating blocks is not required, thereby shortening the time spent for obtaining the test result.
In addition, the test strip detecting system 1 is an embodiment of the present invention, and those skilled in the art may make various modifications accordingly, but are not limited to this. For example, please refer to
In summary, the test strip detecting carrier, the test strip detecting method and the test strip detecting system of the present invention may easily obtain objective test results through a mobile communication device. By embedding the colorimetric calibrating blocks inside the positioning markers, the image positioning, correction and colorimetry may be quickly performed to shorten the time spent for obtaining the test result. Moreover, quantitative analysis of the specimen may be performed to identify the positive concentration of the specimen.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention. Accordingly, the above disclosure should be construed as limited only by the metes and bounds of the appended claims.
Number | Date | Country | Kind |
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111135895 | Sep 2022 | TW | national |