Patent ID: 8861677

Claim:
A cannula shield inspection device for determining a position of a cannula in a cannula shield, the cannula and cannula shield attached to a syringe having a longitudinal axis, the inspection device comprising: an electromagnetic imager having an emitter and a detector, the imager configured to emit electromagnetic radiation having a propagation axis, the detector having an inspection window defined by a beam restrictor; a mount configured to releasably retain the syringe between the emitter and the detector such that the longitudinal axis of the syringe is substantially coincident with the propagation axis and to support the beam restrictor; and an image analyzer operatively coupled to the detector, the image analyzer comprising: one or more processors; memory; and one or more programs stored in the memory and configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs comprising: a first set of instructions producing an electromagnetic image of the electromagnetic, radiation received by the detector; a second set of instructions parsing the electromagnetic image into a number of distinctly separate objects based on a contiguity of pixels having substantially like-valued intensity; and a third set of instructions applying a heuristic causing the processor to produce a syringe rejection signal when the number of distinctly separate objects is less than or equal to two.