macroPhor™ Array

Analytical laboratory meets hyperspectral imaging! 

The macroPhor™ Array is a high performance hyperspectral imaging system designed for high volume sampling and big data output. The system is optimized for macroscopic imaging with the ability to combine multiple imaging modalities (cameras) and the ability to automatically image up to twenty-one different samples at a time. An intuitive software interface provides an easy setup of the 3 unit x7 unit sample array (full tray size is 11.75” x 27.25”). The user can select any combination of the sample positions to acquire data from. The software allows selection of one or both cameras for image acquisition. The ability to acquire data with multiple hyperspectral imaging modalities can supply complimentary and independent information about the sample.

In plant research, for example, information about the photosynthetic pigments can be extracted using fluorescence imaging, while information about the compartmentalization of water within the plant can be obtained using Near Infrared (NIR) imaging.  This complimentary information is useful for plant phenotyping.

The Power of Hyperspectral Imaging

Single point spectroscopic measurement instruments are capable of producing high quality spectra which are critical to understanding or solving problems presented to the lab. This helps to resolve questions like “What is it?” and ”How much is there?” These techniques can be cumbersome to use and relatively uninformative with respect to the non-uniformities when looking at the entire area of a sample or product. Using a hyperspectral camera, an image of the whole sample area can be captured and interrogated quickly to understand data from the entire sample. A hyperspectral image contains a full spectrum for each pixel in the image. This can be extremely useful for identifying pure components, monitoring uniformity across a sample, looking for contaminants or quantitative measurements of sample components.

Big Data Output, Powerful Software

The macroPhor™ Array features a large sample stage that can hold a variety of samples such as plant and plant materials, yeast colonies, drill core, minerals and other products derived from organic components. The system supports a large sample tray that can hold up to twenty-one samples (e.g., petri-dishes, well plates, custom trays) that can be scanned in succession. The macroPhor™ Array produces large data sets which can be overwhelming by the casual user, however we have developed an image analysis software package (KemoQuant™) that can quickly reduce the data into quantitative and meaningful results. KemoQuant™ using multivariate spectral analysis techniques to discover/identify the independently varying spectral components present within the hyperspectral images and quantify the amount of these spectral components present in each pixel.  The software also provides the user a statistical output about the twenty-one-sample array, as well as within each sample using a pre-defined grid pattern (e.g., 24 well plate). The full spectrum analysis techniques provided by KemoQuant provides the greatest possible measurement sensitivity and specificity necessary for solving difficult problems.