Kowa Company Limited

Muneharu Ishikawa

Ayafumi Taniji

Koji Katayama

Satohiko Takanashi

Tetsuya Yamamoto

Katsumi Yabusaki

Akihiro Fujita

Masunori Kawamura

Hiroshi Nakao

Makoto Kanebako

Taisuke Hirono

Kouichi Akiyama

Tsuyoshi Watanabe

Koji Oobayashi

Eiichi Ito

Cuvettes in boxes for blood testing and the like, are to be distinguished by bar code cuvette identification codes on each cuvette, together with a box identification code. The cuvettes have very limited space for bar code characters. The cuvette bar code reader is responsive to at least two different kinds of control codes, i.e., two distinct start code values and/or stop code values. The distinct control codes operate the bar code reader, but also contribute to the information that is encoded. A cuvette identification code is developed that combines an information code value with distinctions among the control codes found, to increase the number of values that can be encoded. In one embodiment, four start codes, four stop codes and a single decimal information digit, provide 160 different values.

Cuvette control unit and controlling method using the same

A method of measuring the number of times of a specific behavior of an animal in a breeding cage comprising a step in which a common pattern of the specific behavior is determined by receiving a signal of vibration of the cage caused by the specific behavior of the animal and extracting the feature of a frequency component of the signal, a step in which a measurement objective pattern is determined in the same way, and a step in which the common patterns in the measurement objective patterns is counted; a device for the measurement including means for detecting the vibration of the breeding cage, means for extracting the feature of the frequency component, and means for counting the common patterns in the measurement objective patterns; and a method for measuring the specific behavior such as a scratching of a small animal, e.g., a mouse in a breeding cage noninvasively, and an automatic measuring instrument.

Method and device for measuring frequency of specific behavior of animal

A particle-containing fluid in a sample cuvette is irradiated by a laser beam from a light source section. The scattered light thus produced passes through converging lenses and a mask and impinges on an etalon interferometer. The etalon only transmits scattered light (Rayleigh scattered light) that is of the same wavelength as the light emitted by the laser light source. The transmitted scattered light components impinges on a photomultiplier, and based on the intensity of the light a calculating section sorts the particles according to size and calculates the number of particles per unit flow amount, the particle size distribution and so forth. To enable adjustments to be made to compensate for the environmental dependency characteristics of the etalon, a control unit is provided which consists of a photodiode and mirrors.

Method and apparatus for measuring particles in a fluid

An apparatus for non-invasively measuring the oxygen saturation in the blood of a subject comprises light sources for irradiating a sample of blood in tissue with at least a first light beam and a second light beam having different wavelengths. A switching device drives the light sources and sequentially switches the irradiation of the sample of blood between the first and second laser beams. A photoelectric detector detects light transmitted through or reflected from the sample of blood and provides an electrical output signal indicative of the intensity of the detected light. A converter converts the electrical output signal of the photoelectric detecting device to a power spectrum, and a processor processes the power spectrum and calculates the oxygen saturation of the sample of blood. The blood oxygen saturation in the blood can be measured with high accuracy based on the detection of the light intensity transmitted through or reflected from the blood, regardless of the presence or absence of a pulsed blood flow. Additionally, by irradiating the subject by switching between laser beams of two wavelengths, the subject receives less irradiation than when two lasers are used at the same time. Thus even if the amount of irradiation at each wavelength is slightly increased, the accuracy measurement can be improved without adversely affecting the subject.

Apparatus for measuring oxygen saturation

A pulse spectrometer for noninvasively determining the concentration of blood constituents in in vivo tissue comprises a pressure application device for applying pressure to a measurement region of the in vivo tissue and a light source for irradiating the measurement region of the in vivo tissue with light. A spectroscope separates light transmitted from the measuring region into its spectral components, and a first light-receiving element receives the spectral components. A second light-receiving element receives scattered light from a vicinity of the measurement region. A control device controls the pressure which is applied on the measurement region by the pressure application device based on a signal obtained from the second light-receiving element. A signal separator separates a blood flow variation component from the spectral components received by the first light-receiving element based on the signal from the second light-receiving element.

Pulse spectrometer

An apparatus for measuring blood flow in which an optical system guides a coherent light beam to impinge on a stationary measurement spot of a measurement plane of an in vivo tissue. A light-receiving optical system focuses a light image of the measurement plane in the vicinity of an image point conjugate with the stationary measurement spot. The light-receiving optical system shares at least part of the optical components of the guiding optical system. Photodetectors are disposed at prescribed positions perpendicular to the optical axis of the light-receiving optical system, and in the vicinity of the image point, for measuring light scattered from the in vivo tissue to provide blood flow information. The blood flow information is related to blood flowing at a depth within the in vivo tissue. A visible image of the measurement plane is converted into a video image. The blood flow information corresponding to the position of the stationary measurement spot is superimposed on the video image and displayed to obtain a composite visible image.

Apparatus for measuring blood flow

An apparatus for measuring blood flow repeatedly segmentally scans a region of in vivo tissue with a coherent light beam. Each scanning segment comprises a scanning period during which the light beam is scanned and a rest period during which the light beam is not scanned. During the rest period, the light beam is directed at a measuring point of the in vivo tissue. Measurement data is obtained dependent on the intensity of scattered light from the measurement point. The measurement data is time series data of chronological changes in the intensity of scattered light caused by blood in the in vivo tissue. The blood flow rate is calculated from frequency-analysis of the time series data.

Disclosed is a particle measurement method and apparatus for measuring particle properties in which a laser beam is projected into a detection region in a medium containing particles to be measured, and a photoelectric detector having a predetermined dynamic range is used to detect the laser light scattered by the particles in the medium to produce signals which are evaluated to measure the particle properties. The polarization of the laser beam and the intensity of the scattered light are regulated in accordance with the range of particle sizes measured so that the intensity of the scattered light is within the dynamic range of the photoelectric detector. This arrangement makes it possible to expand the range of particle sizes with an improved resolving power in particle measurement without multi-valued ranges.

Particle measuring method and apparatus

A particle measurement apparatus is disclosed in which a laser beam is projected at a sample containing particles to be measured in a measurement zone and light scattered by particles in the sample is evaluated to thereby determine properties of particles in the sample. The apparatus includes a plurality of light receiving systems for receiving scattered light arranged at different angles relative to the axis of the laser beam. The amplitude of scattered light signals from the light receiving systems are compared with predetermined values. The arrangement is such that particles are counted by size only when the scattered light signals from the light receiving systems exceed a predetermined value, enabling false signals caused by noise and the like to be eliminated and assuring more accurate measurements.

Particle measurement apparatus

A method and apparatus for measuring the velocity of a fluid in which a double-exposure image of the speckle pattern or particle images of tracer particle in a fluid is irradiated with a collimated beam of coherent light, and is subjected to Fourier transformation to produce Young's fringes at its focal plane. A slit is rotated relatively with respect to the double-exposure image to produce changes in the amount of light transmitted by the slit and determine the direction of the fringes. To determine the spacing of the fringes, a variable-spacing grating filter is used which is complementary to the image of the fringes and has a transmission distribution function of sin.sup.2 or cos.sup.2. The thus obtained direction and spacing of the fringes are used to determine the velocity of the fluid.

Method and apparatus for measuring the velocity of a fluid using

Disclosed is a method and apparatus for measuring particles in a fluid by irradiating the fluid containing the particle with a laser beam and analyzing the laser light scattered by the particle to determine the characteristics of the particle. An elliptical laser beam is projected into a particle detection area in which the particles to be measured are caused to flow. The laser light scattered by the particle is received for photoelectric conversion into a time-series photoelectric signal in a direction along which the particle flows. The photoelectric signal is subjected to a moving average process to determine a time width during which the signal exceeds a predetermined level to cause the change in intensity of the scattered light. This change is recognized as a change in intensity caused by the passage of the particle through the particle detection area when the time width falls within a certain range.

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Tsukuba, Japan

Muneharu Ishikawa