KR101509396B1 - Portable POCT apparatus - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention relates to a portable field inspection apparatus. According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a light source device including: an upper body having a light source unit for irradiating a light source of an arbitrary wavelength, and a light source guide unit having a pinhole through which the light source passes, And a lower body coupled to the upper body in the same longitudinal direction to acquire an image of the bio sample using the light source, wherein the lower body comprises a chip mounting part on which the chip having the bio sample is mountable, And an image sensor for sensing an image of the bio-sample at a lower portion of the chip using a light source that transmits the bio-sample when the bio-sample is coupled to the body.
According to the portable field inspection apparatus, a portable POCT platform based on an image sensor is provided, which can be implemented at a low cost and has an advantage in that the efficiency of the platform can be increased because of high usability and portability. In addition, the structure of the lens, which requires complicated array manipulation, is omitted, the volume is smaller than that of the conventional lens, and the bio sample can be measured in a wider field of view and the measurement time can be shortened.

Description

[0001] Portable POCT apparatus [0002]

The present invention relates to a portable field inspection apparatus, and more particularly, to a portable field inspection apparatus capable of easily extracting image information of a bio sample.

Recently, a variety of POCT (Point Of Card Testing) platforms for extracting image information of bio samples (ex, cells, microorganisms, viruses) have been developed.

Conventionally, complicated components such as an expensive lens (ex, condenser lens, collector lens), a filter (ex, emission filter, excitation filter, color filter) and the like are required. Professional measurement technology is required and the skill and user must operate it, so the usability and convenience are poor. In addition, such a conventional apparatus is relatively bulky and has low portability and is incompatible with other devices, so that it can be used only in a limited environment.

In addition, when a lens is used as in the conventional method, it is necessary to adjust the focusing of the lens according to the position of the bio sample, and the entire portion of the sample can not be detected at a time. That is, the entire area of the sample must be scanned with time, and a motor or the like for moving the position of the lens is separately required, which increases the price of the product.

In addition, large-sized hospitals or authorized medical institutions and research institutes of relatively large size extract and collect information of bio-samples using expensive bulky and high-priced equipment as described above. However, Institutions and developing countries do not have access to the benefits of medical services or research facilities. Therefore, it is required to develop a field inspection platform which is relatively compact and can be implemented at low cost.

The technology of the background of the present invention is disclosed in Korean Patent No. 10-0737395 (published on July 7, 2007).

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of the present invention to provide a portable field inspection apparatus capable of providing a POCT (Point Of Card Testing) platform which is compact and can be implemented at low cost and has high usability and portability.

The present invention provides a light source device including a light source unit for emitting a light source of a certain wavelength and an upper body including a light source guide unit having a pinhole through which the light source is passed at a portion corresponding to a lower portion of the light source unit, And a lower body coupled to the body in the same longitudinal direction to obtain an image of the bio sample using the light source, wherein the lower body comprises: a chip mounting part on which the chip with the bio sample is mountable; And an image sensor for sensing an image of the bio-sample at a lower portion of the chip using a light source that transmits the bio-sample when the bio-sample is coupled with the bio-sample.

The chip mounting portion includes a surface portion on which the chip is mounted, a guide wall formed on a portion of the periphery of the surface portion at a predetermined height to form a closed side surface, And a cover plate covering a part of an upper surface of the chip, which is slid in a horizontal direction through another opened side opposite to the closed side.

Further, the image sensor may be inserted in the center of the surface portion.

The upper body and the lower body may have a cylindrical shape, and the lower end of the upper body and the upper end of the lower body may be coupled by a male and a female screw.

The lower body may further include a transmission module for transmitting an image of the bio-sample obtained from the image sensor to an external terminal, and the transmission module may be a USB port or a Bluetooth module.

Also, the external terminal can recover the image of the bio-sample using the wavelength information acquired for each pixel unit through the captured image.

The portable field inspection apparatus according to the present invention provides a portable POCT platform based on an image sensor and can be implemented at a low cost with a small size, high usability and portability, and thus has an advantage of increasing the efficiency of the platform. In addition, the structure of the lens, which requires complicated array manipulation, is omitted, the volume is smaller than that of the conventional lens, and the bio sample can be measured in a wider field of view and the measurement time can be shortened.

1 is an exploded cross-sectional view of a portable field inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention.
2 is a cross-sectional view of the connection of Fig.
3 is a perspective view of a chip inserted into a lower body shown in FIG.
4 is a connection diagram between the device of FIG. 2 and an external terminal.

Hereinafter, embodiments of the present invention will be described in detail with reference to the accompanying drawings so that those skilled in the art can easily carry out the present invention.

FIG. 1 is an exploded cross-sectional view of a portable field inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, and FIG. 2 is an assembled cross-sectional view of FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a chip inserted into a lower body shown in FIG.

1 to 3, a portable field inspection apparatus 100 according to an embodiment of the present invention includes an upper body 110 and a lower body 120. The upper body 110 and the lower body 120 have a cylindrical shape and have a structure capable of mutually coupling or disengaging. For example, the lower end portion of the upper body 110 and the upper end portion of the lower body 120 can be engaged or disengaged from each other in a male screw manner. Of course, other coupling schemes may be applied.

Hereinafter, a portable field inspection apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described in detail. First, the upper body 110 includes a light source unit 111 and a light source guide unit 112.

The light source unit 111 is located at the inner upper end of the upper body 110 and irradiates a light source of a certain wavelength. In this embodiment, a low power LED light source having a predetermined single wavelength can be used. Of course, the type of light source can be changed.

The light source guide part 112 is formed with a pinhole 113 through which the light source passes at a position corresponding to the lower part of the light source part 111. The light source is irradiated with a uniform and constant wavelength through the pinhole 113 .

The light source guide unit 112 may be implemented as a case that accommodates the light source unit 111 as shown in FIG. In addition, the light source guide unit 112 may be provided in a lower portion of the light source unit 111, and may be formed in a plate shape that divides an upper region and a lower region of the upper body 110.

The lower body 120 may be in-line coupled to the lower body of the upper body 110 in the same longitudinal direction as the upper body 110 and may include an in- to be. To this end, the lower body 120 has a chip mounting portion 121 and an image sensor 125 built therein.

In general, a chip in which a bio-sample is embedded is realized as a material of transparency. For example, the chip may consist of upper and lower layers, and the bio sample 11 may be stored in an inner groove formed between the two layers. There are a variety of variations on the way in which the bio sample is embedded in the chip, and reference is made to known facts.

1 to 3, the chip mounting part 121 is a part to which the chip 10 with the bio sample 11 is mounted. The chip mounting portion 121 includes a surface portion 122, a guide wall 123, and a cover plate 124.

Referring to FIG. 3, the surface portion 122 is a portion where the chip 10 is seated. In the present embodiment, the cross section of the chip 10 also has a circular shape corresponding to the shape of the lower body 120.

The guide wall 123 is formed at a predetermined height on a part of the periphery of the surface portion 122 to form a closed side surface on the chip mounting portion 121. Of course, an open other side is formed around the remaining peripheral portion where the guide wall 123 is not formed, and the chip 10 is slidably insertable in the horizontal direction through the opened other side. Further, at the time of sliding insertion, the guide wall 123 serves to brakes the sliding insertion movement of the chip 10.

The cover plate 124 is bent in a direction parallel to the surface portion 122 at the upper end of the guide wall 123 and functions to cover a part of the upper surface of the chip 10 slidably inserted through the opened other side surface do. The cover plate 124 has a shape covering only a part of the upper surface of the chip 10 so as to allow the light source to reach the sample portion at the central portion of the chip 10 without interference. That is, the cover plate 124 is formed to have a size that does not cover or interfere with the light source.

In this embodiment, the chip 10 is slidably insertable in the horizontal direction through an opened other side opposite to the closed side, and when the chip 10 is completely inserted, a part of the upper surface of the chip 10 And is covered by the cover plate 124 to fix the position.

Here, a portion of the outer surface of the lower body 120 corresponding to the opened other side may be provided with a separate mark (Open) in the form of a character or image to guide the insertion position of the chip 10.

In this embodiment, the guide wall 123 and the cover plate 124 have an arc shape corresponding to a semicircle as shown in Fig. When the chip 10 is slidably inserted into the chip mounting portion 121, a part of the periphery of the chip 10 is fitted into the groove portion between the cover plate 124 and the surface portion 122, so that the chip 10 is stably fixed do. Of course, in the present embodiment, the upper and lower bodies 110 and 120 may be formed in a polygonal shape such as a quadrangle instead of a circular shape, and the guide wall 123 and the cover plate 124 are not necessarily circular, ) Is insertable.

When the lower body 120 is coupled with the upper body 110, the image sensor 125 may detect the bio-sample 125 from the lower portion of the chip 10 using the light source that has transmitted the bio- And senses an image captured by the camera 11. The image sensor 125 is configured to support an arbitrary number of pixels corresponding to the number of internal optical elements and can be configured using a conventional general image sensor.

The LED light source of the arbitrary wavelength irradiated from the light source unit 111 passes through the chip 10 in which the bio sample 11 is embedded and changes the wavelength of the sample according to the shape, size, structure, . The image sensor 125 receives the information of the changed wavelength for each pixel.

Of course, in the case of a background part where the sample is not located, or a wavelength that passes through the void space between the sample particle and the particle, the wavelength will be transmitted almost without strain. That is, in the case of some pixels corresponding to the background or empty space among the pixels of the image sensor 125, the signal of the arbitrary wavelength in which no wavelength deformation has occurred will be directly received. Also, in the case of a pixel corresponding to the region where the sample particle is located, a signal of a wavelength value modified by the particle will be received.

If the sensing signal of the pixel corresponding to the background or the empty space is used as described above, it is possible to determine which wavelength is the wavelength of the light source irradiated from the LED light source, and the wavelength value of the identified LED light source It is possible to restore the sample image image including the shape, structure, color, and the like of the bio-sample when compared with the wavelength value modified by the particle.

Here, the image restoration process of the sample image using the comparison of the wavelength values is a known method, and a more detailed description of the principle is omitted. In addition, in the present embodiment, the image restoration process using the wavelength value is not directly performed in the device 100, and an external terminal (ex, PC, notebook, PDA, smartphone, smart Device), which will be described with reference to FIG.

Meanwhile, in the embodiment of the present invention, the image sensor 125 may be inserted into the central portion of the surface portion 122. Accordingly, the distance between the image sensor 125 and the chip 10 is minimized, so that the captured image can be obtained at the nearest position from the bio sample 11 and the resolution of the image can be increased. Of course, the position of the image sensor 125 is not limited to be inserted into the surface portion 122. For example, it is also possible to make the surface portion 122 of a transparent material having a slim thickness and position the image sensor 125 below the surface portion 122.

In this embodiment of the present invention, the upper body 110 includes only the LED light source 111 and the pinhole 113, and the image sensor 125 is disposed on the lower body 120 in a straight line, Image information can be extracted based on line holographic imaging. In addition, according to the embodiment of the present invention, since only the bio sample sample is prepared and inserted into the apparatus 100 without having to accommodate the sample or the reaction solution in the apparatus, the sample preparation step for using the equipment, And no pretreatment steps such as dyeing.

As described above, the present embodiment provides a portable POCT platform based on a WebCam, which is advantageous in that it can be manufactured in a small size and low cost, and has good usability and portability. In addition, since it is available to various users other than specialist institutions or experts, it does not require proficiency of work, and anyone can easily use it without limitations in any place without restriction.

4 is a connection diagram between the device of FIG. 2 and an external terminal. 4 is an assembled perspective view of an apparatus according to an embodiment of the present invention, in which a cylindrical upper body 110 and a lower body 120 are coupled to each other.

The lower body 120 is provided with a transmission module 126 for transmitting an image of the bio sample 11 obtained from the image sensor 125 to the external terminal 200. In the case of FIG. 4, the transmission module 126 is implemented as a USB port.

Of course, the transmission module 126 may be replaced with a wireless module such as a Bluetooth module instead of the USB port, and the functions of the USB port and the wireless module may be concurrently performed in the device 100. In addition, since the wireless module does not require an external physical port, it can be embedded in the lower body 120. In this way, when using the USB port or Bluetooth communication, it is easy to use because it is compatible with computers, and it can secure competitiveness in the domestic and overseas POCT market.

The external terminal 200 may analyze the wavelength of each pixel from the image captured by the image sensor 125 to restore the image of the bio-sample 11. That is, the external terminal 200 can generate an image of a sample using wired / wireless connection with the apparatus 100 using the information received from the image sensor 125. As described above, And the image of the bio-sample can be restored using the obtained wavelength information.

The restored image may include the size, color, morphology, texture, and the like of the bio sample 11, as well as the presence and the number of the target bio sample. This makes it possible to more accurately check the type and current state of the bio sample (ex, pathogens). For example, it has the advantage of observing tissue of circulating tumor cells (CTC) or tissue biopsy.

According to the embodiment of the present invention, the complicated processing elements are omitted inside the device, so that the price can be lowered and the competitiveness can be increased. In addition, by omitting expensive components such as conventional lenses and filters that require fine alignment, the volume is smaller and more economical than conventional systems, and the bio-sample can be measured with a wider field of view with only the image sensor, And increases the efficiency of the platform.

In this embodiment, since the image information acquired by the image sensor 125 is transmitted to the computer via the USB terminal, the device 100 does not require a separate communication process, thereby increasing the real-time imaging efficiency. Then, the original image of the sample can be obtained without reacting with the specific sample, and the color data can be acquired and processed by software image processing without using a physical filter to acquire color data.

According to the portable field inspection apparatus of the present invention as described above, the portable POCT platform based on the image sensor can be implemented at a low cost with a small size, high usability and portability, and the efficiency of the platform can be increased. In addition, the structure of the lens, which requires complicated array manipulation, is omitted, the volume is smaller than that of the conventional lens, and the bio sample can be measured in a wider field of view and the measurement time can be shortened.

While the present invention has been described with reference to exemplary embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the disclosed exemplary embodiments, but, on the contrary, is intended to cover various modifications and equivalent arrangements included within the spirit and scope of the appended claims. Accordingly, the true scope of the present invention should be determined by the technical idea of the appended claims.

10: chip 11: biosample
100: portable field inspection apparatus 110: upper body
111: light source unit 112: light source guide unit
113: pinhole 120: lower body
121: Chip mounting part 122: Surface part
123: guide wall 124: cover plate
125: image sensor 126: transmission module
200: external terminal

Claims (6)

An upper body incorporating a light source unit for irradiating a light source of an arbitrary wavelength and a light source guide unit having a pinhole through which the light source passes, at a portion corresponding to a lower portion of the light source unit; And
And a lower body coupled to the lower portion of the upper body in the same longitudinal direction as the upper body and acquiring an image of the bio sample using the light source,
The lower body includes:
An image sensor for sensing an image of the bio sample at a lower portion of the chip using a light source that transmits the bio sample when the chip is coupled with the upper body, ,
The chip mounting portion includes:
A surface portion on which the chip is seated;
A guide wall formed at a predetermined height around a circumference of the surface portion to form a closed side; And
And a cover plate which covers a part of an upper surface of the chip, the cover plate being bent in a direction parallel to the surface portion at an upper end of the guide wall and sliding in a horizontal direction through an opened other side opposite to the closed side, Portable field inspection equipment. delete The method according to claim 1,
Wherein the image sensor comprises:
And is inserted in the center of the surface portion. The method of claim 3,
Wherein the upper body and the lower body have a cylindrical shape,
Wherein the lower end of the upper body and the upper end of the lower body are coupled together in a male and female screw manner. The method according to claim 1,
The lower body includes:
Further comprising a transmission module for transmitting an image of the bio-sample obtained from the image sensor to an external terminal,
The transmission module comprises:
Portable field inspection device with USB port or Bluetooth module. The method of claim 5,
Wherein the external terminal comprises:
And restores the image of the bio sample by using the wavelength information acquired for each pixel unit through the captured image.

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