LOW COST OPTICAL HIGH SPEED DISCRETE MEASUREMENT SYSTEM

• Main Authors: WEBER AARON, TRACY DAVID H, STOKES PETER
• Format: Patent
• Language: English
• Published: 04.12.2014
• Subjects: INDICATING PRESENCE, ABSENCE, OR DIRECTION, OF MOVEMENT; MEASURING; MEASURING ANGLES; MEASURING AREAS; MEASURING IRREGULARITIES OF SURFACES OR CONTOURS; MEASURING LENGTH, THICKNESS OR SIMILAR LINEARDIMENSIONS; MEASURING LINEAR OR ANGULAR SPEED, ACCELERATION, DECELERATION,OR SHOCK; MEASURING VOLUME, VOLUME FLOW, MASS FLOW OR LIQUIDLEVEL; METERING BY VOLUME; PHYSICS; TESTING

Systems and methods are provided for determining a velocity or an inflation rate of a droplet in a microfluidic channel. The droplet is exposed to two or more temporally separated flashes of light, each flash including light of one wavelength band, and imaged using a detector configured to distinguish light in the wavelength bands. Two or more images of the droplet are acquired, each corresponding to one of the flashes, and all within a single video frame or photographic exposure. The images can be processed separately and the position or size of the droplet in each image is calculated. A velocity or inflation rate is then determined by dividing the change in position or size by the amount of time allowed to pass between the flashes.