Patent 10140705 was granted and assigned to Siemens Healthcare Diagnostics Inc. on November, 2018 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Methods and systems for detecting properties of sample tubes in a laboratory environment include a drawer vision system that can be trained and calibrated. Images of a tube tray captured by at least one camera are analyzed to extract image patches that allow a processor to automatically determine if a tube slot is occupied, if the tube has a cap, and if the tube has a tube top cup. The processor can be trained using a random forest technique and a plurality of training image patches. Cameras can be calibrated using a three-dimensional calibration target that can be inserted into the drawer.