Patent ID: 8666116

Claim:
A method of facilitating obtaining a first signal for analysis to characterize at least one periodic component thereof, including acts of: obtaining at least two second signals representative of intensities of captured electromagnetic radiation, each corresponding to a respective different radiation frequency range, the first signal being at least derivable an output signal obtainable by applying a transformation to the second signals such that any value of the output signal is based on values from each respective second signal at corresponding points in time; and obtaining at least one value of at least one variable determining influences of at least components of respective second signals on the output signal when the signals corresponding to the second signals are captured and the transformation is applied, by at least one of: (i) analyzing at least one of the second signals, an output signal obtained by applying the transformation to the second signals and a first signal derived from the output signal and using the analysis to select at least one value of at least one parameter corresponding to a respective one of the variables; and (ii) calculating values of at least one time-varying factor corresponding to a respective one of the variables, each factor value based on at least one second signal value, and applying each factor in an operation in at least one of number of parallel sequences of operations comprising at least one such operation and taking a signal corresponding to a respective one of the second signals as input.