ABSTRACT
For decades, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) has been a mainstay in food, agriculture, food, textiles, and, since the 1980s, pharmaceuticals. NIR process monitoring and analysis are becoming more important as more and more industries both become automated and, simultaneously, feel intense international competitive pressures. With the addition of MEMS-based spectrometers, NIR instruments could truly become portable, often weighing no more than a hair drier. Clearly, the resolution is higher for larger numbers of diodes, but, since NIR peaks are quite wide, while “noise” is generally a higher frequency, so there is a limit to how many diodes are needed, which means “diminishing returns” with many, many more diodes. Hyperspectral imaging is a combination of spectroscopy and image forming. It creates an electromagnetic profile of a two-dimensional scene by capturing the intensity of radiation emitted from each elementary spatial segment of the scene (pixel) at various wavelengths.
