Regular colony counts are part of the day-to-day tasks of many laboratories to rule out the contamination of products with bacteria, viruses, yeasts, or molds during production. To do this, Petri dishes containing the relevant samples are evaluated to determine the number of colonies formed. While the classic manual counting method means that every colony has to be marked individually, automatic devices can analyze numerous Petri dishes of the same type quickly.
However, the ColonyStar automatic device from Funke-Gerber is equipped with a camera and a cordless, detachable tablet, which makes the analysis of Petri dishes both fast and straightforward. With the unique assist mode, after tapping on a colony via touchscreen, other colonies of the same type are automatically recorded, marked, and counted. The selection can be corrected at any time. In this way, the lab worker retains full control while also achieving huge time savings. To mark 200 colonies, for example, only between four and 15 actions are necessary. The device operator retains complete control and does not need to rely solely on the device, as is the case with fully automatic solutions.