Licensable Technologies : Engineering : Membranes

Handheld Apparatus for Multipurpose Sample Collection & Registration

Abstract
A handheld sample collection and registration device has been invented at Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) that enables an individual user to collect samples and simultaneously record information about each sample. Specifically, LANL has developed a handheld, ruggedized, multipurpose sample collection and registration device. The device can be used to collect solid, liquid and gas samples without cross-contamination, as well as to register sample-related information rapidly and electronically in indoor and outdoor settings. Currently, sample collection and registration processes tend to be labor-intensive, time-consuming, error-prone, and require different sampling equipment, supplies, and protocols, depending on whether samples are solids, liquids, and/or gases.• The processes are labor-intensive, particularly in high-volume situations, because they tend to require that pairs of sample collectors work together. One person collects the samples, while the other records information about them. • Sample registration tends to be time-consuming, in that collectors tend to record sample-related information with a notebook and pencil or pen while in the field. In fact, it is not uncommon for manual field recording to take five minutes or more per sample. Afterwards, either the sample collectors, or others, tend to have to fill out manually the registration forms laboratories require to analyze samples. • Manual processes tend to be error-prone, especially when handwritten data must be transferred, in writing, into differently formatted registration forms. Also, cross-contamination occurs commonly, since sampling procedures tend to require that collectors handle samples manually. • Finally, organizations have had to buy and maintain different sampling equipment and supplies, depending on whether the samples with which they work are solids, liquids, and/or gases.

Application(s)
Due to the ability to customize it depending on the type of sample and environment, the device has various applications in the private and public sectors. Potential users could include emergency response teams, law enforcement, forensics units, customs, fire departments, health care providers, doping inspectors, arson investigators, food supply chain safety inspectors, environmental protection agencies, agricultural organizations, military organizations, and others.

Advantages
The handheld sampling and registration device provides the following benefits:• ruggedized design, ready to be used in harsh environments. • very intuitive, easy to learn operator interface. • modular design, which allows users to customize the device according to sampling needs and environment • universal sample media adapter that enables the operator to use the device with virtually any type of sample collection media for gas, solid, and liquid sampling (e.g., swabs, vials, ghost swipes, contact plates, filter papers, air filter cartridges, etc.). • hands-off sample loading/unloading mechanism that eliminates direct contact between the sample collector and the sample. This prevents human exposure and sample cross contamination, which is crucial for applications such as forensic evidence collection. • built-in electronic data acquisition capabilities that eliminate the need for time-consuming, error-prone, manual record-keeping in the field. The device automatically records sampling-related information such as the 3-D coordinates of the sampling location, voice-based sample annotations by the user, the identification (e.g., a barcode or handwritten label) of the sample storage container, information about the sampling protocol, and digital still and/or video images of sampling location and objects. • automated data tracking capabilities that significantly simplify the sample collection-related data management and sample chain-of-custody. The device generates one unified, multi-media (e.g., voice, video, text), electronic data record for each sample it collects (e.g., including date, time, location, operator identification). During or after sample collection, these electronic, multi-media sample records can be uploaded easily into a sample records management system (e.g., a Laboratory Information Management System, LIMS) for subsequent sample processing and analysis. This eliminates the need for manual, time-consuming, and error-prone data re-entry into other systems. • potential savings in labor costs during the sampling and registration procedures. To sample, one operator can collect samples, as well as accurately and quickly record information about them. To register, the same operator uses the device�s automated data-tracking capabilities. To send the sample and registration information for analysis, the same operator uploads the information into the LIMS employed by the receiving laboratory.

IP Status: Contact Licensing Executive for Details

Reference Number: 368

S Number: DOE reference no.(s): 100,593

Patents & Applications:
United States National Patent Number 6947866 Issued on 09/20/2005

Posted: 12-22-2004

Contact
John Mott
Technology Transfer Division
Los Alamos National Laboratory
P.O. Box 1663, MailStop C334
(505) 665-0883
jmott@lanl.gov