Patent ID: 7068365

Claim:
A method for the assessment of at least one quantity parameter and/or at least one quality parameter of biological particles in a liquid analyte material, comprising providing a volume of between 0.01 μl and 20 μl of a liquid sample comprising the liquid analyte material, exposing, onto an array of active detection elements, an at least one-dimensional spatial image of said volume, the image being one which is detectable as an intensity by individual active detection elements, under conditions which will permit processing of the intensities detected by the array of detection elements during the exposure in such a manner that images of electromagnetic signals from the biological particles are identified as distinct from images of electromagnetic signals from background signals, and wherein the spatial image exposed onto the array of active detection elements is subject to such a linear enlargement that the ratio of the image of a linear dimension on the array of detection elements to the original linear dimension in the exposing domain is smaller than 10:1, the sample being at stand still daring the exposure, processing the intensities detected by the detection elements in such a manner that signals from the biological particles are identified as distinct from background signals, and correlating the results of the processing to the at least one quantity parameter and/or the at least one quality parameter of the liquid analyte material.