Patent ID: 11921125
Assignee: LEICA BIOSYSTEMS IMAGING, INC.
Field: Measurement (Instruments)
Classification: CPC G | IPC G

Claim 8:
9. An automatic slide scanner system comprising:
scanner components comprising a processor, a memory, a motion controller, a movable stage, an illuminator, a lens, a camera, and a communication bus; and
slide handling components comprising:
at least one slide rack having multiple slots, each slot configured to hold a glass slide before and after the scanner components scan the slide such that the glass slide enters the slot through a front opening and is blocked from exiting by a rear barrier;
a sensor pair comprising a transmitter element and a receiver element and configured for use with slide racks of one or more different dimensions;
the sensor pair relatively oriented with the transmitter element and receiver element being positioned between the front opening and the rear barrier to transmit along line-of-sight that passes through the multiple slots in the slide rack;
a motor and positioning structure configured to position the sensor pair on either side of the rack with wide enough spacing to avoid interference with the slide racks of one or more different dimensions and to sequentially position the sensor pair on either side of a series of the slots;
the sensor pair configured for line-of-sight communication through the series of slots as the motor causes relative movement of the sensor pair and the slots; and
a processor configured to correlate signals from the sensor pair with each slot in each slide rack, based on the as the motor's movement through the sequence of positions, and to receive and analyze signals from the sensor pair to determine slot status for each slot.