Soft Imaging, LLC: About Us

About Us

In 1984, two NASA veterans, including world-renowned digital image processing expert, Dr. Kenneth R. Castleman, co-founded Perceptive Systems Inc. (PSI), a manufacturer of digital imaging workstations used in medical research and in diagnostic labs for cytogenetics applications. In 1996, International Remote Imaging Systems (now IRIS International, Inc.) acquired PSI. Four years later, IRIS sold PSI's product line and manufacturing facilities to Applied Imaging Corporation (Now Genetix, Ltd.), retaining only its research department as a subsidiary organization known as Advanced Digital Imaging Research, LLC (ADIR). In 2007, ADIR transitioned to Soft Imaging, LLC (SI) following a new government ruling under the Small Business Administration (SBA) that ADIR, as a wholly-owned subsidiary of IRIS, was subject to formal company size determination, and was found no longer eligible for Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant funding. IRIS consequently closed down ADIR. Soft Imaging was then started and has since employed ADIR key personnel to retain its core competencies. By changing to an independent small R&D company, SI becomes eligible for funding under the SBA requirements and has successfully received several SBIR grant awards after the closure of ADIR.

As a technology R&D company, our core competencies are in digital image processing, with special expertise in digital image enhancement, quantitative image analysis, pattern recognition, image coding, 3D imaging and image processing, and automated microscopy. Through the decades, the PSI/ADIR/SI research group has been responsible for many of the important innovations employed in biomedical imaging systems installed worldwide, including the GenetiScan™ automatic metaphase finder, automated fluorescence microscopy system for assessment of low-dose radiation to NASA astronauts from space missions, automated microscopy system for fetal cell screening, the PowerGene™ automated cytogenetics product line that includes automatic karyotyping system, FISH image analysis workstation, and Multispectral-FISH image analysis system, and the IRIS iQ™-200 product line for automated urinalysis. These innovations and products have advanced the science and technology for modern biomedical imaging.