Patent ID: 9404074
Filing Date: 2016-08-02
CPC Classification: C12M

Claim Text:
1. An incubation apparatus including a temperature-controlled room adjusted to be a predetermined environment condition suitable for incubating cells, and incubating a sample of an incubation container inside the temperature-controlled room, the incubation apparatus comprising: an imaging section that photographs an entirety of the incubation container and an area external of the incubation container inside the temperature-controlled room to generate a total observing image that includes image information concerning a contour of the incubation container; an image analyzing section that is capable of determining (i) an occurrence of a scattering of a culture by analyzing the image information concerning the contour of the incubation container, and (ii) whether it is necessary to issue an error signal notifying the occurrence of the scattering of the culture in accordance with the analysis result; a microscope unit that is capable of photographing a sample observing image in which a sample inside the incubation container is microscopically observed, and a controller that controls the image analyzing section and the microscope unit, wherein after the total observing image is generated by the imaging section, the controller: instructs the image analyzing section to determine (i) the occurrence of the scattering of the culture by analyzing the image information concerning the contour of the incubation container, and (ii) whether it is necessary to issue the error signal notifying the occurrence of the scattering of the culture, instructs the image analyzing section to issue the error signal when it is determined that it is necessary to issue the error signal, and instructs the microscope unit to photograph the sample observing image in which the sample inside the incubation container is microscopically observed at predetermined time intervals, when it is determined that it is not necessary to issue the error signal.