Loading Kratos Vision 1.x/2.x ASCII files

The Kratos Vision data sets are probably the closest in logical design to the ISO-14976 file format. A single binary file maintains the context for an experiment, where an experiment may include multiple acquisition regions characterized by, so-called, state changes. These state-changes are equivalent to the experimental variable fields used in the ISO-14976 standard and the Vision Objects are equivalent to the VAMAS blocks.

The principal problem with converting the Vision 1.x/2.x data sets is the internal data-structures used to maintain the experimental information. The file structure is a link-list of file records that hold a hierarchical description of the data. Fortunately there is a utility called dump_dataset (available from Kratos), which converts the binary format to an ASCII version and it is the ASCII version that CasaXPS converts to the ISO-14976 standard.

To create an ASCII version of a Kratos Vision data set type the following.

On the Unix workstation move to the data directory and type

dump_dataset filename.dset all > new_filename.kal

The extension .kal is recognized by CasaXPS and tells the conversion routine to parse the data using the Kratos Vision option.

Figure 1: Convert to VAMAS file Dialog Window. The file display filter is set to show only .kal files.

Selecting a .kal file via the “Convert to VAMAS file” dialog window causes an ISO-14976 file to be generated with the same name, but with a .vms extension added. The spectra will be converted and other experimental information extracted so that the ISO-14976 file may be quantified to produce identical results to those from the Vision systems. That is, transmission correction is included as part of the ISO-14976 file.

Element library files from the Vision 1.x system can also be converted to CasaXPS format and Vision 2.x element libraries can be converted on request.