Patent ID: 7141413

Claim:
An incubator comprising a chamber, the incubator being for culturing samples on culture containers inside the chamber adjusted to predetermined ambient conditions, the incubator being characterized in that a culture container accommodating rack having a plurality of culture container accommodating portions is disposed inside the chamber, a culture container transport device being adapted to move culture containers into or out of a desired culture container accommodating portions within the chamber, camera being attached in the chamber and facing a specified position wherein the culture containers are to be photographed,a control system being constructed so as to control operation of the culture container transport device, the camera, and the ambient conditions, the sample on each of the culture containers being photographable by transporting each of the culture containers to the specified position, wherein the specified position wherein each of the culture containers are to be photographed is provided on a particular accommodating portion of the accommodating rack wherein the specified position is the same position for each of the culture containers.