Patent ID: 6867051

Claim:
A method for reading a surface of a test strip comprising an image, comprising: moving a reader head in a reflectance reader to a first position over the surface comprising the image; measuring a first amount of light reflected from the surface comprising the image; uniformly illuminating the surface with light of a first wavelength, and measuring a second amount of light reflected from the surface; and uniformly illuminating the surface with light of a second wavelength, and measuring a third amount of light reflected from the surface, wherein the reader head comprises: a reader head body; a light emitting diode; a first fiberoptic bundle optically coupled to the light emitting diode; a photodetector; a second fiberoptic bundle optically coupled to the photodetector; an aperture in the reader head body; and a plurality of fiberoptic conductor ends arranged in a sigmoidal distribution in the aperture, wherein: a first portion of the fiberoptic conductor ends comprises fiberoptic conductors of the first fiberoptic bundle; and a second portion of the fiberoptic conductor ends comprises fiberoptic conductors of the second fiberoptic bundle.