Automated system inspects radioactive medical imaging product labels A contact image sensor (CIS) line scan camera provides clear images of radiotracer labels for optical character recognition and optical character verification tasks.

摘要

In nuclear medical imaging, small amounts of radioactive materials called imaging agents (or radiotracers) are injected into the bloodstream, inhaled, or swallowed. In a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) system, for example, gadolinium may be given to a person to highlight areas of tumor or inflammation. For providers of these radiotracers, inspection of the labels represents an early and crucial part of the process to ensure that an incorrect agent is not administered to a patient. At one large provider of radioactive medical imaging products, the previous manual process uses a label rewind table to unroll labels, where a person looks at each one to ensure proper printing to identify the various fields on the label: calibration date, calibration time, lot number, concentration, volume, and expiration date. This process proved time consuming, inefficient, and prone to costly mistakes.