Hi Frank,
You must definitely check out Matlab 5.3 (www.mathworks.com). Matlab is a
math program that is also capable of image processing (even has an image
processing toolbox, but not standard). I'm using it for automated analysis
of fluorescence images. Because Matlab only works with matrices, an image
is always presented in its 'numerical' form and you need a display function
to convert these numbers in an 'visual' image.
Matlab can do curve fitting as well.
Good luck,
Steve Koll
Faculty of Agriculture and Applied Biological Sciences
Lab of Biochemistry and Molecular Cytology
University of Ghent
Belgium