Patent ID: 7538336

Claim:
A method of identifying a test strip having a set of test pads, said method comprising: A. illuminating said set of test pads with at least one test signal having a wavelength; B. detecting a set of reflected signals from said set of test pads; C. generating an image comprising a number of test pads and a set of reflectance values derived from said set of reflected signals, and counting said number of test pads to determine a test pad count and determining a test strip format as a function of said test pad count; D. determining a test pad type from the image for at least one test pad from the set of test pads by comparing a reflectance value associated with the test pad with a set of reference reflectance values, wherein each of said reference reflectance values corresponds to said wavelength and is associated with a different reference test pad type; and E. identifying said test strip as a function of a set of determined test pad types.