A key player in precision lens and high-tech optics manufacturing, our client was looking to diversify from serving primarily military and avionics applications, and had identified an opening within the lifesciences sector - a specialist microscopy system for viewing clinical microplates. A prototype unit had been designed and built by one of their teams of design engineers - with a custom-designed stepper motor stage performing sample manipulation, and images being captured by a high-resolution industrial-grade digital camera. Basic prototype software had been developed by a third party and the unit had been subjected to a series of field trials. Trials of the unit itself were very successful; the prototype software, less so!

Discussions with the client about the numerous bug fixes, amendments and new functionality required soon led to agreement that a ground-up re-write was the most efficient way to proceed.

Capitalising on WyeTec’s familiarity with computer-based imaging, database design and systems integration, we agreed a specfication for, and delivered, a product that far exceeded the initial customer expectations - in a timely and cost-effective manner.

Features included

• manufacturer-agnostic support for monochrome & colour firewire (IEEE1394) cameras.
• Sequenced / time-lapse image acquisition
• Passive auto-focus
• Stitching of multiple images
• Statistical reporting of image data
• Calibration, storage and recall of microplate data
• Automated motion control