Patent ID: 7486395

Claim:
A portable system for obtaining a spectrum of a sample, comprising: an instrument module comprising a photon source, a spectrometer, and a photon detector; a handheld probe operably connected to said instrument module and independently movable with respect to said instrument module, said probe comprising a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) camera contained substantially within a housing, wherein said housing includes a positioning guide for spacing apart said handheld probe from said sample; said photon source for providing a first plurality of photons to interact with said sample to thereby form a second plurality of photons; an optical lens contained substantially within said housing for collecting said second plurality of photons; a filter for blocking a portion of said first plurality of photons present in an optical path with said second plurality of photons; a fiber optic array for directing said second plurality of photons passing through said filter to said spectrometer, wherein said fiber optic array is a fiber array spectral translator and optical fibers comprising said fiber optic array are arranged in a two-dimensional array at a first end and a one-dimensional array at a second end of the fiber optic array; and said photon detector receiving said second plurality of photons having passed through said spectrometer to thereby obtain a spectrum of said sample, wherein said sample includes at least one biothreat agent selected from the group consisting of bacterial spores, live cells, viruses and toxins, and at least one material or chemical present in the normal ambient environment from which said sample is obtained.