PATTERN EXPERT airspect

Software for Recognition, Analysis and Classification of Spectra

The software PATTERN EXPERT airspect (Adaptive Information Extraction and Research System for Spectroscopy) allows the user to build up so-called "Knowledge Bases" for his infrared spectra, mass spectra, and other types, and to analyze these spectra using powerful Pattern Recognition methods. The software has been developed in collaboration with the Forensic Science Institute of the "Bundeskriminalamt" (the German central police agency). There, it is used for the identification of mass product samples.

Building up collections of spectra is a very common method in the material and life sciences, in quality control and chemometry, as well as many other areas. PATTERN EXPERT airspect helps to extract the knowledge contained in these collections in an optimal manner and to make it accessible to a large number of users.

The program PATTERN EXPERT airspect can be used to construct and train so-called "Recognition Modules" fully automatically. No previous experience or knowledge is needed, for instance from signal processing or neural information processing. The user just needs to assign the individual spectra of his collection to the desired classes. This can be done in a very easy and efficient way. After that, a Recognition Module is trained based on these assignments.

The training process takes - depending on the difficulty of the task - between a few seconds and several hours. After that, the Recognition Module is ready for classifying new unknown spectra.

The system has been tested with large collections of more than 5000 spectra in over 25 classes with great success.

In addition to the classification of an unknown spectrum, the Knowledge Base can be searched for known reference spectra which are similar to the unknown one. The algorithms for Recognition Module training generate at the same time distance measures consistent with the current problem. These can be used to find the "nearest" reference spectra for a given unknown spectrum.

The software is able to import files of the JCAMP-DX format, the *.spc Format of Thermo Galactic (GRAMS/32 software) as well as plain text files. Additional input formats can be delivered on demand.

Further program characteristics:

• Simple and intuitive operation.
• Fully automatic preprocessing (removal of jump discontinuities, baseline correction, rescaling).
• Visualization of spectra: original curves, intermediate and final results of preprocessing, 1st and 2nd derivatives, 1 dim. and 2.5 dim. display as well as "Gel View".
• Fully automatic generation of characteristic features for classification.
• Powerful training algorithms based on the technology framework PATTERN EXPERT.
• Efficient assignment of spectra to classes by importing a table or by using the directory structure.
• Tabular presentation of learning and classification results.
• Optional use of additional user-defined information for classification.
• Efficient control of the algorithms for Recognition Module training via scripts (additional scripts for special tasks available on demand).

If you wish to learn more about the software PATTERN EXPERT airspect, please read how to build up a complete recognition and classification system step by step, or get a detailed picture of the full functionality of the software.

A trial version of PATTERN EXPERT airspect can be delivered on request.

Test Examples you can find here.