Patent ID: 7467153

Claim:
A method of collecting experimental data comprising the steps of: initializing a container using configuration information, the container having a plurality of subcontainers disposed therein or thereon, each subcontainer having a biological specimen disposed within or on the subcontainer; storing the configuration information used for the container in a container database; repeating steps (a)-(g) for desired sub-containers in the container: (a) selecting an individual sub-container in the container, (b) collecting a plurality of image data from the biological specimen disposed within or on the sub-container, (c) storing the plurality of image data in an image database, (d) collecting a plurality of feature data from the image data, (e) storing the plurality of feature data in a feature database, (f) calculating a plurality of sub-container summary data using the plurality of image data and the plurality of feature data collected from the biological specimen disposed within or on the sub-container, and (g) storing the plurality of sub-container summary data in a sub-container database; calculating a plurality of container summary data using the plurality of sub-container summary data from the sub-container database; and storing the plurality of container summary data in the container database.