Patent ID: 6483583
Filing Date: 2002-11-19
Classification: A01D,G01J,G01N

Abstract:
An apparatus for measuring the constituents of a substance, said apparatus comprising:a light source capable of producing near infrared radiation in a controllable direction to a substance location; a sensor oriented towards the substance location, said sensor being capable of sensing near infrared radiation reflected from or passing through the substance location; a housing including a monochromator having no moving optical components, said monochromator being capable of isolating narrow portions of the near infrared spectrum, said monochromator being selected from the group consisting of a stationary interferometer, a stationary Hadamard mask, an acoustic-optic tunable filter (AOTF), and an electro-optic modulator, said housing further including a detector positioned to quantify and simultaneously detect one or more narrow portions of the near infrared spectrum created by the monochromator; a communication member between the sensor and monochromator to transfer the sensed near infrared radiation to the monochromator; and a processor operatively connected to the monochromator, said processor being capable of identifying and determining the amount of constituents in the substance based on the quantified and simultaneously detected one or more isolated narrow portions of the near infrared spectrum; wherein said housing is movable relative to the substance.