KR102043670B1 - Automatic microorganism management incubator system - Google Patents

Abstract

The present invention is to culture the medium inoculated with microorganisms in the set conditions to determine the number of colonies through the image analysis before and after the proliferation, but to produce a report, if the proliferation above the set value through the real-time monitoring during the cultivation to smooth the image It relates to a microorganism automatic management incubator system to enable analysis and result confirmation.

Description

Automatic microorganism management incubator system

The present invention relates to a microbial incubator, and in detail, cultured the medium inoculated with microorganisms in the set conditions to determine the number of colonies through the image analysis before and after the proliferation, but to produce a report over the set value through real-time monitoring during the culture In the case of the present invention relates to a microorganism automatic management incubator system to suppress the proliferation to enable smooth image analysis and result confirmation.

For the production and distribution of various foods, drugs, hygiene products, etc., it is essential to inspect the presence of harmful bacteria.

To this end, as a method for checking the presence of a common bacterium, a microorganism is sampled and cultured in an incubator for a predetermined time, and the result of the culture is measured and detected visually by a specialist using a microscope.

In other words, colony colonies are counted after proliferation at a set time and temperature on a medium containing nutrients.

1 (a) is a conceptual diagram showing the microbial culture and colony counting and report preparation process according to the conventional method, the conventional method is basically inoculated with the microorganisms in the medium and then cultured through an incubator, after a certain time with the naked eye The process consists of counting colonies and writing a report. An experienced researcher is usually used for about 18 hours.

This conventional method is not only accurate results according to the researcher's skill, but in the case of microorganisms with difficult culture conditions, if the incubator does not set various parameters properly, the proliferation may not be performed, or conversely, the colony count itself may be excessive. The situation that could not be achieved also caused the fatigue of the researchers for a long time.

Recently, a counting method using optical equipment and a computer has been proposed so that colonies can be counted relatively accurately by substituting the naked eye count of the researcher. However, as mentioned above, if the culture itself is not smooth under different culture conditions. Even with the use of optical equipment and computers, there still existed problems that smooth counting could not be achieved.

Patent Publication No. 10-2017-0132856 (Dec. 4, 2017)

The present invention was created to solve the above problems, an object of the present invention is to culture the medium inoculated with microorganisms in the set conditions to determine the number of colonies through the image analysis before and after the proliferation while preparing a report It is to provide a microbial automatic management incubator system to suppress the proliferation when the proliferation above the set value through real-time monitoring to enable smooth image analysis and result confirmation.

In order to achieve the above object, the present invention provides a microbial incubator system including an incubator containing a medium inoculated with microorganisms, the illumination intensity sensing means for sensing the brightness inside the incubator, and an illumination for maintaining the inside of the incubator at a set brightness. Being roughness control unit; A temperature control unit comprising a temperature sensing means for sensing a temperature inside the incubator and a heat transfer means for heating the inside of the incubator; UV lamp for irradiating ultraviolet light in the incubator; An image acquisition unit for photographing a medium installed in the incubator; An interface unit for receiving an operation signal for controlling the incubator and outputting state information of the incubator; Based on a timer circuit and the operation signal, the illumination control unit and the temperature control unit are controlled to maintain a set temperature and brightness, and an image processing unit for monitoring colonies by processing a badge photographing image, and determining the number of colonies from the processed images. A counting unit, a growth suppression unit for operating the UV lamp corresponding to the shape of the monitored colony, and a control unit for applying the operating conditions of the illuminance control unit, the temperature control unit and the UV lamp as state information to the interface unit; Characterized in that made.

At this time, the image processing unit, a pre-processing unit for the secondary image after the correction and removing the noise obtained from the image acquisition unit, an extraction unit for extracting the colony portion for the coefficients from the secondary image and the extracted colonies It may include an analysis unit for analyzing the external feature points.

In addition, a bar code processing unit for outputting a bar code including information on the working date, microorganism type, magnification applied to the medium; In addition, the control unit may further include a barcode recognition unit for acquiring the included information by photographing and recognizing the barcode attached to the badge through the image acquisition unit.

In addition, the linkage to support the mutual communication between the plurality of incubators; A reporting unit for generating and outputting the operation signal and state information from each incubator and the analyzed colony external feature points and counting results in a report form in association with the linkage unit; It may further include.

The present invention can automatically generate and output colony's automatic counting and experimental results and reports through image processing and analysis with automatic sensor-based microbial culture, so that accurate culture and analysis can be achieved while significantly reducing input time of researchers. have.

In particular, it is possible to prevent colony counting due to excessive proliferation due to incorrect setting of culture conditions, to monitor colony shape during cultivation, and to suppress proliferation to a countable level so that efficient culture management is possible.

1 (a) is a conceptual diagram showing a microbial culture and colony counting and report preparation process according to a conventional method,
1 (b) is a conceptual diagram showing a microbial culture and colony count and report preparation process according to the present invention,
2 is a front view showing the structure of an incubator according to an embodiment of the present invention,
3 is a block diagram showing a configuration and a connection relationship according to an embodiment of the present invention;
4 is a plan view showing the shape of a badge and a barcode according to the present invention;
5 is a conceptual diagram illustrating a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention.

Hereinafter, with reference to the accompanying drawings will be described in detail the configuration of the microorganism automatic management incubator system.

Figure 1 (b) is a conceptual diagram showing a microbial culture and colony count and report preparation process according to the present invention. Compared to the conventional method described above, the present invention can automatically generate and output colony's automatic coefficient, experimental results, and report through image processing and analysis along with sensor-based microorganism automatic cultivation, thereby significantly reducing the input time of the researcher. This ensures accurate culture and analysis.

Figure 2 is a front view showing the structure of the incubator according to an embodiment of the present invention, Figure 3 is a block diagram showing the configuration and connection relationship according to an embodiment of the present invention, the present invention is basically a medium inoculated with the microorganism inoculated It comprises an incubator 100, and is composed of a computer-based terminal 200 for generating a report by processing the data processed in conjunction with this.

The incubator 100 is formed in a closed space culture space provided with a cover of transparent or translucent material on the front surface, and the illumination control unit 110 and the temperature control unit as a configuration for the automatic culture of microorganisms and colony counting through the image A detailed configuration of the image acquisition unit 140, the interface unit 150, and the controller 160 including the 120 and the UV lamp 130 is provided.

The illuminance control unit 110 is configured to emit light necessary for the work of the researcher put the medium in the culture space, along with the supply of light required for the growth of microorganisms, and detects the brightness of the culture space inside the incubator 100. The illumination sensing means 111 and the illumination 112 for maintaining the inside of the incubator 100 to the set brightness.

The illuminance detecting means 111 is an illuminance sensor to measure the brightness of the interior of the culture space at all times, and the illumination 112 is made of an LED or a light bulb that emits light of a predetermined wavelength required for microbial culture and is emitted according to power change. It is configured to control the internal brightness by adjusting the brightness of the light or by varying the number of LEDs or light bulbs that are lit in the state with a large number of LEDs or light bulbs.

The temperature control unit 120 is configured to maintain the temperature required for the growth of microorganisms, the temperature sensing means 121 for detecting the temperature inside the incubator 100, and the heat transfer means for heating the inside of the incubator ( 122). Typically, the interior of the culture space is made of a heat insulating material to operate in conjunction with the temperature sensing means 121 and the heat transfer means 122 to maintain the most active temperature range of microorganisms in the state that the heat from the outside is blocked. .

The UV lamp 130 is configured to kill the microorganisms of the medium contained and to inhibit the growth by irradiating ultraviolet rays inside the incubator 100, and emits ultraviolet rays having a wavelength band in the range for killing microorganisms. The sterilization effect of ultraviolet rays is proportional to the wavelength of ultraviolet rays, irradiation intensity and irradiation time, and the wavelength with high sterilization power is around 250 ~ 260nm, and it has sterilization effect of 1,000 ~ 10,000 times than near ultraviolet ray (300 ~ 400nm). . In the present invention, since the purpose of inhibiting proliferation or lowering the excessively propagated colonies to a countable level, the microorganisms are killed when they are too strong, and thus, they need to be composed of appropriate wavelengths and illuminance.

The image acquisition unit 140 is configured with a camera installed to photograph the medium accommodated and installed inside the incubator. In the present invention, as it is used to determine the shape of the colony with the count of colonies formed in the culture medium, it is provided with an optical means for image enlargement so that the small colonies can be clearly identified with the camera of the appropriate pixel.

The interface unit 150 is configured to receive an operation signal for controlling the incubator and output state information of the incubator. The interface unit 150 is composed of an LED panel including an operation button outside the incubator 100 while the researcher controls the operation. Check the operation status.

The controller 160 receives power from the outside and controls the illumination control unit 110 and the temperature control unit 120 based on a timer circuit and the operation signal to maintain the set temperature and brightness to incubate microorganisms. In this configuration, the detailed configuration of the image processing unit 161, the counting unit 165, the growth suppression unit 166, the learning unit 168 and the database unit 169, and the illumination control unit ( 110 and the operation state of the temperature control unit 120 and the UV lamp 130 can be output through the interface unit 150 as status information.

The image processor 161 may include an image analysis algorithm configured to monitor a colony by processing a badge photographed image obtained through the image acquisition unit 140. Although it can be analyzed in various ways, what is to be obtained through image analysis in the present invention is the number of colonies and colonies. It is related to the growth of colonies in the form of colonies, and when the microorganisms overproliferate, it is important to maintain a countable form of the colony because it is impossible to count such as adjacent colonies.

To this end, the image processing unit 161 is a pre-processing unit 162 for performing secondary correction on the image acquired by the image acquisition unit 140 and removing noise, and extracting a colony portion for counting from the secondary image. The extraction unit 163 and the analysis unit 164 analyzing the external feature points of the extracted colonies are made.

The preprocessing unit 162 basically includes an image filter algorithm to process the colony on the medium in a state in which a portion other than the medium to be monitored is removed. In addition to the removal, the video is binarized. Thereafter, the extractor 163 extracts the colony part from the secondary image, and analyzes the shape, that is, the external feature point by enlarging the colony part extracted by the analyzer 164.

The counting unit 165 is configured to determine the number of colonies from the processed image, and similarly to determine the number of colonies generated by comparing the image analysis result of the initial medium and the image analysis result of the medium after propagation through an image analysis algorithm. do. Through such medium monitoring and image analysis, it is possible to measure the exact number of colonies even in the proliferation process that is difficult to identify with the naked eye.

The growth suppression unit 166 is configured to operate the UV lamp 130 in response to the shape of the monitored colony. As mentioned above, the abnormal form of colonies generated by excessive propagation makes it difficult to smooth the colony count, and when the growth is above the value set through the monitoring colony shape, the temperature in the culture space is first set through the temperature control unit 120. Lower the rate to inhibit proliferation. Then, if microbial growth is found above the set value as a medium monitoring result, the UV lamp 130 is operated to prevent further growth and lower the level of microorganisms to help smooth counting.

Figure 4 is a plan view showing the shape of a badge and a barcode according to the present invention. In the case of the conventional microbial cultivation process, a variety of microbial cultivation experiments are carried out at the same time, and in order to prevent confusion when preparing the microorganism and the result report, it is common for the researcher to write information on the label with resin and attach it to the medium.

In the present invention, to reduce the inconvenience and to avoid confusion, the barcode processing unit 220 for outputting a barcode including information on the working date, microorganism type, magnification applied to the medium to be tested on the terminal 200 side The control unit 160 may include a barcode recognition unit 167 for acquiring the information included by photographing and recognizing the barcode attached to the badge through the image acquisition unit 140.

That is, the researcher can manage the badge through the image acquisition unit 140 and the barcode recognition unit 167 without attaching additional information by attaching the barcode output through the barcode processing unit 220 to the arrangement portion. , Microbial confusion, and medium can be prevented from changing.

In addition, since the colony counting and the autoclave sterilization process of the microorganism proceeding after the report is managed through the barcode attached to the medium, the microorganism integrated management by the barcode and software can be performed from the inoculation of the first microorganism to the final sterilization stage. have.

That is, by detecting the barcode attached to the medium before and after adding the medium to be discarded to the autoclave, it is possible to accurately process the medium without error.

The learning unit 168 is configured to increase the accuracy of the same or similar culture process in the future by collecting and analyzing the culture conditions according to the type of microorganism, that is, the specific control value of temperature, roughness and the hourly monitoring result of the acquired medium image. In addition, the control command input from the culture system according to the present invention, the acquired operation state information, and the image analysis result according to the medium monitoring are stored in a separate database unit 169.

All of the information stored in the database unit 169 is classified by microorganisms, and when learning the culture of microorganisms classified as the same or similar, the learning unit 168 searches and analyzes the stored information so that the microorganisms may not be overproliferated or proliferated. By checking the temperature and illuminance conditions and outputting through the interface unit, the researcher can reduce trial and error.

5 is a conceptual diagram showing a system configuration according to an embodiment of the present invention, showing a structure capable of generating a report with integrated management by connecting a plurality of incubators to one terminal (computer).

To this end, an interlocking unit 170, which is a wired or wireless communication module supporting mutual communication between a plurality of incubators, is provided, and each incubator 100 is provided with a serial code to obtain operation signals and status information obtained from each incubator. And, it is possible to collect the image and the image analysis result, and correspondingly, the terminal 200 in conjunction with the linkage to the operation signal and status information from each incubator and the external appearance of the colony feature points and counting results analyzed Reporting unit 210 is provided to create and output in the form of a report to enable the automatic generation and output of a report written by a conventional handwriting.

The rights of the present invention are not limited to the embodiments described above, but are defined by the claims, and those skilled in the art can make various modifications and adaptations within the scope of the claims. It is self-evident.

100: incubator 110: roughness control unit
111: illuminance detection means 112: illumination
120: temperature control unit 121: temperature sensing means
122: heat transfer means 130: UV lamp
140: image acquisition unit 150: interface unit
160: control unit 161: image processing unit
162: preprocessing unit 163: extraction unit
164: analysis unit 165: counter
166: growth suppression unit 167: barcode recognition unit
168: learning unit 169: database unit
170: linking unit 210: reporting unit
220: barcode processing unit

Claims (5)

In the microbial incubator system comprising an incubator 100 is accommodated medium inoculated microorganisms,
An illuminance control unit (110) consisting of illuminance detecting means (111) for detecting the brightness of the inside of the incubator (100) and an illumination (112) for maintaining the inside of the incubator (100) at a set brightness;
A temperature control unit 120 including a temperature sensing unit 121 for sensing a temperature in the incubator 100 and a heat transfer unit 122 for heating the inside of the incubator 100;
UV lamp 130 that irradiates the inside of the incubator 100, but kills the microorganisms of the received medium and inhibits proliferation;
An image acquisition unit 140 for photographing the medium accommodated and installed in the incubator 100;
An interface unit 150 receiving an operation signal for controlling the incubator 100 and outputting state information of the incubator 100;
The illuminance control unit 110 and the temperature control unit 120 are controlled based on a timer circuit and the operation signal to maintain a set temperature and brightness, while correcting an image acquired by the image acquisition unit 140 and removing noise. Media capture including pre-processing unit 162 to remove and secondaryize after extraction, extracting unit 163 to extract the colony portion for counting from the secondary image, and analysis unit 164 to analyze the external feature points of the extracted colonies When the image processing unit 161 for processing the image to monitor the colony, the counting unit 165 for determining the number of colonies from the processed image and the colonies adjacent to each other as the proliferation over the set value through the monitored colony shape First, through the temperature control unit 120 to suppress the growth by lowering the temperature in the culture space at a set ratio, and then increase the microorganism to a value higher than the set value as a result of medium monitoring When the expression is found, by operating the UV lamp 130 to prevent additional growth to the colony countable level to lower the number of microorganisms growth suppression unit 166 and the illumination control unit 110 to achieve a smooth counting And a controller 160 for applying the operating conditions of the temperature controller 120 and the UV lamp 130 to the interface unit 150 as state information.
Linkage unit 170 for supporting mutual communication between the plurality of incubators;
A reporting unit 210 for generating and outputting an operation signal and state information from each incubator and analyzed colony external feature points and counting results in a report form in association with the linking unit 170;
A barcode processing unit 220 for outputting a barcode including information on a working date, microorganism type, and magnification applied to the medium; Consisting of,
The control unit 160 photographs and recognizes a barcode attached to the badge through the image acquisition unit 140 to obtain information included in the barcode recognition unit 167, the input operation signal, the acquired state information, and the badge. Database unit 169 which classifies and stores the image analysis result according to the microorganism, and the information stored in the database unit 169 is searched and analyzed during the cultivation of microorganisms classified as the same or similar to each other by over-proliferation of microorganisms. The microorganism automatic management incubator system characterized in that it further comprises a learning unit 168 to check the temperature and illuminance conditions that the adjacent colonies are impossible to count and output through the interface unit 150. delete delete delete delete

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