Patent ID: 8112248

Claim:
A method comprising configuring a processor to perform the following steps: (a) identifying a plurality of spectroscopic instruments; (b) for each spectroscopic instrument, obtaining an instrument-specific first plurality of spectra and an instrument-specific second plurality of spectra from a plurality of samples using said spectroscopic instrument; (c) selecting a set of instrument-specific weight values from a first plurality of weight values, wherein said set includes an instrument-specific weight value for each of said plurality of spectroscopic instruments; (d) performing the following for the selected set of instrument-specific weight values: for each spectroscopic instrument, assigning a respective instrument-specific weight value from the selected set of weight values to each instrument-specific spectrum in said first and said second plurality of spectra, thereby generating an instrument-specific first plurality of weighted spectra and an instrument-specific second plurality of weighted spectra; (e) for the selected set of instrument-specific weight values, determining a corresponding indicator probability value from said first and said second plurality of weighted spectra; (f) repeating steps (c), (d), and (e) until a first predetermined number of different sets of instrument-specific weight values are selected, thereby obtaining a first plurality of indicator probability values; (g) selecting a first target set of instrument-specific weight values as that set of instrument-specific weight values which corresponds to a highest indicator probability value in said first plurality of indicator probability values; and (h) for each spectroscopic instrument, applying an instrument-specific weight value from said first target set to one or more spectra obtained using said spectroscopic instrument.