Ocean Optics Launches Advanced Spectroscopy Software Platform
Dunedin, FL - Ocean Optics announces the release of SpectraSuite, a completely modular, Java-based spectroscopy software platform that operates on Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems. SpectraSuite can be used to control any Ocean Optics USB spectrometer and device, as well as any other manufacturer's USB instrumentation using the appropriate drivers.
With SpectraSuite, a user can combine data from multiple USB spectrometers in applications that include upwelling/downwelling measurements, dual-beam referencing and process monitoring. OEMs will find SpectraSuite?s modularity most beneficial as all visual and computational aspects of the program's interface can be changed to create a fully branded application.
The SpectraSuite framework is modular and every function in it can be altered or replaced. For instance, the data acquisition functions, the scheduling functions, the data processing functions and the rendering functions are all separate modules. A user can add or delete modules to create a proprietary user interface or functionality; create modules to perform calculations; automate experiment routines and more. The software can easily be customized through Java code.
SpectraSuite easily manages multiple USB spectrometers - each with different acquisition parameters - in multiple windows, and provides graphical and numeric representation of spectra from each spectrometer. It also provides the user with advanced control of episodic data capture attributes. For instance, a user can acquire data for a fixed number of scans or for a specific interval. Initiation of each scan can be externally triggered or event-driven. The captured data is quickly stored into a systems memory at speeds as fast as 1 scan per msec with speeds and is only limited by hardware performance. Resulting data can be stored to disk or viewed as a 3-D surface.
The SpectraSuite interface looks and feels the same on all operating systems yet retains the familiar appearance of an application native to each OS. Ocean Optics is the first to offer such a flexible, feature-packed application with this level of cross-platform capability.
SpectraSuite is 21 CFR Part 11 compliant with an encoded binary file. This binary data format tracks the complete history of all processing steps that are performed on the data. Spectra suite stores and provides data in a variety of other formats including tab-delimited ASCII (for Excel or other analysis packages), Grams SPC, and JCAMP.
Additionally, Spectra Suite offers a database module where arbitrary data can be stored in any user-selectable format. Another benefit of the software's binary data tracking function is that a user can change the values of various parameters in a process and apply those changes to data without having to recreate an entire process.
SpectraSuite is fully internationalized. All of the software's menus, dialog boxes, prompts, messages and files can reflect a native language by simply changing a single file. Currently, modules that support English, German, Japanese and Russian are available. Support for Chinese, French and Spanish will be available in Q4 2005.
SpectraSuite is the platform for all future Ocean Optics application software development. The company's current software applications including OOIChem, OOISensors, OOIColor and OOIIrrad-C will be migrated to the SpectraSuite platform by Q1 2006.
SOURCE: Ocean Optics, Inc.