Colony counter 'Iris'

The Iris is an advanced, automated colony counter developed for the rapid and accurate counting of bacterial colonies on Petri dishes. The system uses artificial intelligence in the form of a deep neural network and is fully designed, built, and programmed in-house by AAA Lab Service B.V.

How does Iris work?

The Iris is designed with ease of use as a starting point. You do not need to configure complex settings; the system is trained based on your specific applications and laboratory environment. This ensures that its operation closely aligns with your daily practice and the evaluation methods of your analysts.

Instead of generic recognition, Iris is specifically trained using datasets from your own laboratory. Through annotations of representative Petri dishes, the neural network learns to recognize colonies in the same way your analysts do. The result is a system that delivers the same level of assessment quality, but faster and with complete consistency.

For more information and video footage of our Iris, please visit this page.

Unique compared to traditional colony counters

Where traditional systems often rely on manual work or offer limited digital support, Iris distinguishes itself through its intelligent and specific approach:

No more marker-based counting, corrections are possible, when necessary
No generic algorithms with limited accuracy
Specific training based on your samples and analytical methods
High recognition of complex situations such as merged colonies, very small colonies, and reflections

Because the system is trained using the knowledge and experience of your own analysts, the output seamlessly matches your quality standards. At the same time, it eliminates human variation caused by fatigue or loss of concentration.

Applications and flexibility

The Iris is widely applicable in, among others, food safety, water, and dairy laboratories. The system can process various types of plates, including:

Pour plates
Spread plates
Spiral plates
Plates with multiple agar layers
Petrifilms

Within an analysis area of 100 x 100 mm, the Iris can recognize virtually anything visible to the human eye. This also includes distinguishing and classifying different types of colonies.

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Key benefits for your laboratory

1. Time savings and efficiency

By automating the counting process, you save a significant amount of time. Large numbers of samples can be processed quickly, resulting in a faster and more streamlined workflow.

2. Consistent and reliable results

The Iris delivers stable and reproducible results without variation caused by human factors. This increases the reliability of your analyses.

3. Improved quality assurance (QA)

All analyses are recorded as images. This allows you to review, verify, and substantiate results at any time, making discussions about outcomes clear and transparent.

4. Reduction of repetitive work

Colony counting is often a repetitive and time-consuming task. Through automation, your staff can focus on more complex and meaningful work.

5. Insight and traceability

Because images are stored, you can easily revisit previous analyses. This supports audits, quality control, and internal evaluations.

Technical specifications

Function: Colony counter
Dimensions: 28 x 60 x 58 cm
Weight: 25 kg
Power supply: 230 V, 50 Hz
Power consumption: 200 Watt
Analysis area: 100 x 100 mm
Speed: approximately 10 seconds per Petri dish (manual)

Also discover the extension: Irina

For laboratories with a higher throughput capacity, the Irina is available as an extension to the Iris. This automatic feeding system eliminates the need for manual placement of Petri dishes and ensures continuous and efficient processing of large numbers of samples. In combination with the Iris, it creates a fully automated workflow in which imaging and analysis are seamlessly integrated. This results in further time savings, a streamlined process, and a calmer laboratory environment.

Introduction process

Are you seriously interested in the Iris? We offer a structured introduction process in which you can experience its capabilities within your own laboratory environment.

At the start of this process, two agar/microorganism combinations are selected in consultation, for which neural networks will be developed. Next, representative Petri dishes are chosen to optimally adjust the camera settings and lighting. Where available, existing neural networks are used to support the annotation process.

Using the TrainingSet Creator, you capture images and annotate them. During this process, we provide remote guidance and assess the quality, balance, and size of the dataset. Based on this dataset, we train a new neural network, which is then made available for evaluation in the Validation web application.

TrainingSet Creator

The TrainingSet Creator is specifically developed for building datasets used to train neural networks. With this application, you can easily create images and add annotations, optionally supported by existing AI models.

You can choose to capture images in bulk and annotate them later, or work per Petri dish so you can directly reference the physical sample during annotation.

Validation Webapp

The Validation web application is accessible via any web browser within your network. After logging in, you select the desired test or analysis and enter a code manually or by scanning a barcode.

You can capture and annotate images immediately, or first create a set of images and process them later. During validation, you indicate false positives and false negatives, after which the analysis is validated.

As this is a web-based application, validation can be performed from any location. All results are automatically stored and made available as a zip file on an FTP server, ready for further processing, for example within your LIMS in various file formats.

Discover what IRIS can really do for your laboratory

The IRIS AI colony counter is not only designed for speed and precision, but also for sustainability in your laboratory processes. By automating the counting of bacterial colonies, you save valuable time every day, reduce human variation and increase the reliability of your results.

An investment in IRIS is therefore more than a technological upgrade; it is a step towards a more efficient, consistent and future-proof laboratory.

Would you like to know what this means for your organisation in concrete terms? Discover how much time, resources and costs you can save with a personal ROI calculation for the IRIS AI colony counter.

Personalised ROI calculation

Possible configurations

Iris Solo
The Iris Solo is designed for laboratories with low-volume workloads or as a replacement for traditional automatic colony counters. It operates by manually loading Petri dishes. Included are: a camera, an AI server, an FTP server (for LIMS data) and a validation web app. The Iris Solo is compatible with 90mm and 60mm Petri dishes and Petri film.
Iris Desktop
The Iris Desktop is versatile and flexible, and designed for laboratories with medium-sized workloads. It is an industrial robot for loading and scanning Petri dishes. Included are: Robot, Camera, AI Server, FTP server (LIMS data) and Validation web app. The Iris Desktop is designed for 150 mm, 90 mm and 60 mm Petri dishes, including those with ‘twist lock’ lids and Petri film.
Irina built-in with Iris
The Irina platform with built-in ‘Iris’ is designed for high-throughput laboratories. The Irina platform processes 540 Petri dishes in approximately 90 minutes. Included are: the Irina platform, a camera, an AI server, an FTP server (for LIMS data) and a validation web app. The Irina is designed exclusively for 90 mm Petri dishes.

Would you like to see what the Iris can do for your laboratory? Request a demo and discover for yourself how you can speed up, improve and automate your processes.

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