Patent ID: 8218132

Claim:
A particle measuring device for measuring particles based upon image data, comprising: a micro-channel wherein fluid mixing particles therein flows, forming laminar flow; imaging means, for imaging said particles flowed in said micro-channel from a direction almost orthogonal to a fluid flow direction; particle speed measuring means, for measuring speed of said particle flowed based upon said image data obtained by imaging through said imaging means; particle number counting means, for counting number of said particles flowed within a predetermined time based upon said image data obtained by imaging through said imaging means; particle size measuring means, for measuring diameter of said particle flowed based upon said image data obtained by imaging through said imaging means; and data associating means, for associating measurement values measured by respective measuring means and time with each other based upon time when measuring through said respective measuring means and controlling thus associated; said particle number counting means, further comprising: a differential image forming portion, for forming a differential image from two stationary images obtained by imaging through said imaging means; a relating portion, for relating said particle to a position to which said particle moved; a particle number counting portion, for counting number of said particles based upon data from said relating portion; a particle position predicting portion, for predicting a position of said particle in a next stationary image from speed of said respective particles obtained through said particle speed measuring means; a particle movement predicting portion, for predicting movement of said particle, such as overlapping of particles and passing of particles in said next stationary image, based upon data of said particle position predicting portion; and a particle number compensating portion, for compensating measurement data of said particle number counting portion based upon data from said particle movement predicting portion and obtaining number of particles which actually exist in said next stationary image.