Portable FTIR Identification System

The System:

DLS Solutions worked closely with the product department and hardware engineers of a small FTIR instrumentation company startup to produce the company's introductory product line. Beginning its business relationship in 1999, DLS Solutions developed the client's first Windows platform drivers for its portable FTIR hardware. DLS continued the partnership by developing an application for Qualitative Identification via spectral library searching. In subsequent years, DLS worked closely with this client to manage the development of applications and new hardware drivers in support of additional instrumentation. Applications included in-field Drug Detection, Hazardous Material Identification, Protein Detection, Chemical Identification and Structural Analysis, Microscope Image FTIR Analysis, Performance Qualification, and Automatic Alignment. DLS' development efforts helped this "small" company become a leader in the first responder hazardous material identification market.

The Projects:

Starting with development in the early specification phase, through design, implementation, and testing, DLS' software product development expertise played an integral role in the success and growth of our client company. Within 6 months, the DLS Windows drivers and interface components allowed the company to integrate and control its hardware from the Galactic Industries GRAMS product for spectral analysis. In just over 12 months, DLS helped this company take its hardware instrumentation to its first successful software application product offering. The initial application was architected and built up from reusable components. This software component framework was then leveraged to quickly fill out the breadth of the company's product line, adding new product applications as well as subsequent revisions of existing products over the next four years, according to the needs of the client. To this day, the company sells numerous products based around the DLS developed components, and has sold over 3000 portable FTIR and Raman units.

Implementation Details:

DLS brought its software development expertise to a startup company whose expertise was in hardware and who could not yet afford to staff and build an entire software department. DLS Solutions provided a leadership role in the areas of software product specification, UI prototyping, firmware development, driver development and hardware support, and management of a rapid development iterative process. Algorithms development also became an important role as time went on, and new products were developed requiring additional features. DLS' component architecture simplified unit testing and allowed the company to respond to changing market requirements more rapidly. Initially, C++ and MFC were used with a few 3rd party components for the Windows 98/2000 platforms. Eventually, new hardware and drivers were built for Windows XP and Windows CE, and applications were built with VB, C++ and C# using Visual Studio 2003/2005. Installations for products were built using Windows Installer technology, with InstallShield, for supporting upgrades and shared component installation.

General Technology:

• Visual Studio 6.0, Visual Studio 2003/2005
• Windows 2000/XP, Windows CE
• C++/MFC 6.0, VB, C#
• Thermo Galactic MyInstrument technology
• USB and PCMCIA Communications to instrumentation
• NuMega DriverStudio, Keil 8051 tools