Patent ID: 8426211

Claim:
A method of measuring copper in soil from light reflected therefrom, said method comprising the steps of: (a) obtaining a measurement of reflected light from said soil using a light measurement device, said measurement comprising a measurement of the respective amount of light in at least two wavelength ranges (b) applying one or more correction to the measurement of the respective amount of light in at least two wavelength ranges, wherein the correction applied is selected from the group consisting of: dark object subtraction, vegetation masking, additive sensor offset, and atmospheric haze; and (c) determining the approximate amount of copper in said soil from said corrected respective amounts of light by applying an algorithm using a microprocessor to relate a ratio of said corrected respective amounts of light in said at least two wavelength ranges to the amount of copper in said soil, wherein said algorithm comprises a ratio of the respective corrected amount of light in said at least two wavelength ranges.