Patent ID: 6140643
Filing Date: 2000-10-31
Classification: G01N

Abstract:
A method for determining the composition of an unknown substance comprising the steps of:1) creating a database of x-ray spectra from at least one sample of each of a plurality of known substances,2) deriving a fuzzy classification system from said database, said system comprising a plurality of substance membership functions wherein each substance is characterized by its content of each of a plurality of pre-selected elements, said content being defined by an element membership function,3) collecting x-ray spectrum data from one or more analysis points on a sample of said unknown substance,4) selecting for each of said analysis point a candidate substance from said plurality of substance membership functions which most closely matches the x-ray spectrum data of said observation point, and5) classifying each said analysis point as either said candidate substance or an unidentifiable substance using a confidence measure.