What is Spectral Workbench?

SpectralWorkbench.org is a web based application to collect, archive, share, and analyze spectral data, especially from Public Lab DIY spectrometers.

With it, you can:

• connect your USB Desktop Spectrometry Kit
• scan and save samples
• wavelength calibrate your spectrometer
• compare and analyze scans
• download CSV data for offline analysis
• view others' data and discuss
• find similar data in a database of over 60k spectra

No download is required -- just a web connection. The Chrome browser works best, but most standard-compliant browsers are supported. It is possible to use from an Android smartphone, preferably with the Firefox browser.

Links

• Learn to use the software
  • Learn about the available tools
  • Learn about the Snapshots system
  • Learn about the Operations system
• Calibration
• Spectrometry in general
• Applications & uses
• Construction
  • Desktop Spectrometry Kit
  • Foldable Mini-Spectrometer
• Troubleshooting
• API Docs

Development

The codebase is available at https://github.com/jywarren/spectral-workbench. The server is written in Ruby on Rails, and the capture interface is mostly jQuery, jQuery Mobile, Canvas, and the HTML5 getUserMedia() API.

The software is in need of a great deal more work, so if you are interested, please get involved! A great place to start is the "plots-dev" mailing list for software developers: http://publiclab.org/wiki/developers

Local development

Some folks have been setting up their own copy of Spectral Workbench. This can be a bit tricky for those new to Ruby on Rails, but is a really helpful first step if you're interested in contributing to the code. YvesAD went through the whole process, written up here: https://github.com/jywarren/spectral-workbench/issues/206 but he also posted a step-by-step install guide here: https://gist.github.com/YvesAD/5520784