Patent ID: 8920724

Claim:
A specimen processing system, comprising: an imaging device that captures an image of a cap of a sealed specimen container containing a specimen; a system controller connected with the imaging device via a first interface, the system controller including a first computer readable memory including a first database and a first computer program embedded thereon, the first database comprising a relationship of feature values and types of specimen container; a specimen processing device, comprising: a measurement device that prepares the specimen and detects a measurement component from the specimen for analysis, the measurement device comprising: an aspirating device including a pipette having a sharp edge, moving the pipette to pierce a cap of the sealed specimen container and aspirating the specimen in the sealed specimen container by the pipette whereby the cap of the sealed specimen container remains in the specimen container during aspiration; and an information processing unit coupled to the measurement device and operable to control an operation of the measurement device, the information processing unit connected with the system controller via a second interface, the information processing unit including a second computer readable memory including a second database and a second computer program embedded thereon, the second database comprising a relationship of the types of specimen container and movement distances of the pipette; wherein the first computer program comprises instructions to: execute the imaging device for capturing an image of the sealed specimen container and receiving the image via the first interface; extract a feature value from the captured image; and determine a type of the sealed specimen container corresponding to the feature value with reference to the first database; wherein the second computer program comprises instructions to: receive the determined type of the sealed specimen container from the system controller via the second interface; retrieve a movement distance corresponding to the determined type with reference to the second database; and control the aspirating device to move the pipette by the movement distance and control the specimen processing device to process the specimen aspirated by the pipette; wherein the movement distance corresponds to an insertion amount of the pipette into the sealed specimen container which enables the pipette to approach near an inner bottom of the sealed specimen container without bringing into contact with the inner bottom; wherein an inner depth of the sealed specimen container varies depending on a specimen container type, and the movement distance is set to be customized for each specimen container type.