Patent ID: 8446463

Claim:
An assay system to perform assays using assay strips, the assay system comprising: a housing having an interior and at least one entrance providing access to the interior, the at least one entrance sized to receive at least one assay strip therein without any assay strip carrier; a user interface including at least one user input device to receive a number of user selectable inputs that identify respective ones of a plurality of configuration modes which specify a respective set of configurable criteria for a respective type of assay strip, the configurable criteria which specifies at least one aspect of a physical format of the respective type of assay strip; an imager subsystem operable to capture images of any of the assay strips received in the interior of the housing; and a processor subsystem comprising at least one processor and at least one processor-readable memory communicatively coupled to the at least one processor, the at least one processor also communicatively coupled to the imager subsystem to receive image information representative of the images captured by the imager subsystem, the at least one processor configured to identify individual ones of the assay strips in the image from the image information, the at least one processor further configured to reconfigure the configurable criteria in accordance with the identified configuration mode in response to the receipt of the user selectable input, and perform an objective assay evaluation based at least in part on at least one signal line on each of the assay strips and based at least in part on at least one configurable criteria.