Spectro for Windows

Spectro for Windows is a spectral analysis program created to process large amounts of raw data. The program was written for graduate and undergraduate students in the School of Textile & Fiber Engineering to use with little or no prior computer experience. This proved challenging simply due to the fact that standard datasets were composed of as many as 18 files each and were most often processed in groups of three, requiring the students to many over 50 separate files in just one sitting.

Increase the complexity was the fact that several different calculations might be performed based on the needs of the student. For some of the calculations, only a portion of the files were required, and in many cases, only some of the raw data files could be obtained at all. It was therefore absolutely necessary that the program make the processes of specifying which data files to use and which calculations to perform by as clear and intuitive as possible in order to reduce the chance of error.

Input

The first step in performing the spectral analysis calculations is to specify the input. Up to three datasets could be processed simultaneously, making it easier to run comparisons between several samples. As was mentioned above, however, a single dataset could consist of as many as 18 different files. To simplify the process of identifying the input datasets, the following dialog box was created:

To specify each file to use, the individual would simply need to choose the appropriate spectral region from the left side of the table and the appropriate data type from across the top. Clicking on the corresponding cell in the table would reveal an open file dialog box with which the user could choose the data file. Once chosen, the file name would then appear in that cell of the table.

Since a standard naming scheme was sometimes used by the students, it was possible to create a guess function that would allow the program to guess the appropriate file names based on a partial name given by the student. This quickly proved to be the most preferred method for selecting data files.

Calculations

Once the input was given, the user was required to indicate which calculations to perform on the data. In the figure above, several options are provided, including performing calculations for black body or tungsten emitters. For either case, one is also given the option of specifying any of a number of different glass or crystal filters that may have a significant impact on the output of the calculations. The user may also specify up to six different temperatures to calculate for.

Output

The last step before the processing may proceed is to define the destination of the output. In this program, the user can request that the data be entered directly into an Excel spreadsheet, instead of being written directly to disk. If the user chooses to have the data stored to disk, the two text fields become active and the user can either type the file names to use, or the Browse... buttons may be used to select an output file for each.

Once the output has been specified, all that remains is to press the Calculate button at the top right of the window to begin processing. The program immediately validates all of the fields and informs the user if any information has been left out. If not, it proceeds with the calculation, which takes approximately 30 seconds.