Patent ID: 7310581

Claim:
Real-time bulk material analyzing system for analyzing the elemental characteristics of bulk material passing by on a moving conveyor belt, said system comprising: a source of illumination for emitting white light to excite bulk material to be analyzed; a spectral sensor for capturing spectral reflectance from bulk material excited by the illumination source; and a control unit for comparing the captured spectral reflectance to a stored calibration, wherein: said sensor includes a hyperspectral imaging spectrometer producing a two dimensional image, one dimension being a spherical width of the conveyor belt and another dimension being a wavelength of the spectral reflectance, each point of the image representing an amount of energy at a specific wavelength reflected from a specific spot across the conveyor belt, said image data being forwarded to the control unit; and wherein said control unit compares a spectral signature for each specific spot across the conveyor belt having been captured by the spectrometer to a stored calibration, each spectral signature having a continuous spectrum of the amount of energy reflected from the specific spot over a range of wavelengths.