Dual Barcode Specimen Labeling for Automated Processing
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Solution Overview
Problem
Automated clinical laboratory specimen processing systems often damage or obscure information on specimen collection containers, leading to errors in reporting results due to misplacement or misidentification of caps, which contain critical information about manufacturing conditions, additives, and analysis requirements.
Innovation Solution
A specimen collection assembly with indicia on both the container and cap, where the cap is opaque when engaged, ensuring that information is protected from automated processing systems and allowing for accurate identification through detectors, including barcodes or RFID tags, ensuring consistency and reliability.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If information is provided only on the cap, then automated processing systems can access the sample, but the cap may become displaced or misidentified leading to errors
Solution Approach 1:
The information is segmented into two identical copies: one on the cap and one on the container body. This segmentation ensures that even if the cap is displaced, the identification information remains on the container body, maintaining reliability while allowing automated systems to access the sample through the cap.
Solution Approach 2:
The identification indicia is copied onto both the cap and the container body. This copying strategy creates redundancy, ensuring that the critical identification information is preserved even if one location (the cap) becomes displaced or separated from its original container.
2Reliability
If information is provided directly on the container, then identification is stable, but automated processing systems may damage or obscure the information
Solution Approach 1:
Different locations on the container serve different functions: the cap area (with its own indicia) is optimized for automated handling and grasping, while the container body (with identical indicia) provides a stable, protected location for information that is less vulnerable to damage from automated processing mechanisms.
Solution Approach 2:
The system prepares for potential damage by pre-placing identical identification indicia on both the cap and the container body. This beforehand cushioning ensures that even if automated processing damages or obscures the indicia on one component, the identical copy on the other component remains intact and usable for identification.
3Illumination intensity
If the cap is transparent, then the container interior is visible, but the first indicia on the container may be obscured when the cap is engaged
Solution Approach 1:
The identification indicia is copied to both the cap and the container body. When the cap is engaged and obscures the container body indicia, the identical copy on the cap remains visible, ensuring that identification information is always accessible regardless of the cap's transparency or position.
Data Source
Figure 1~2
Figure 3A~3C
AI summary
A specimen collection assembly and method for detecting the same are disclosed. The specimen collection assembly includes a specimen collection container having an open top end, a closed bottom end, and a sidewall extending therebetween defining an interior adapted to receive a biological specimen. The specimen collection container also includes first indicia containing information. The assembly further includes a cap having thereon second indicia, the cap being removably engagable with the open top end of the container. The second indicia contains the same information as the first indicia.