Embodiments disclosed herein provide a surgical console, a surgical cassette, and a method for utilizing an image sensor to acquire grayscale image(s) and an embedded microcontroller to then process the image(s) to decode the barcode and/or determine the current level of fluid within the surgical cassette. The image sensor is utilized to detect external light that comes into the field of view of the image sensor. A software algorithm stored within a microcontroller in the surgical console determines whether the potential is high for external light interference. If there is a high potential for external light interference, an advisory or alarm is generated to warn the user to remove the external light source or to turn the console away from the external light source. Once the user has removed the external light and then cleared the advisory, normal console operations and functions can resume.