Patent ID: 8817253

Claim:
A method for hyper-spectral imaging and analysis of a sample of matter, for identifying and characterizing an object of interest therein, the method comprising: preparing a test solution or suspension of the sample of matter, said preparing includes adding to the sample of matter a spectral marker specific to the object of interest, such that if the object of interest is present in said test solution or suspension, the object of interest when marked with said spectral marker becomes a hyper-spectrally active target which is hyper-spectrally detectable and identifiable in said test solution or suspension; generating and collecting hyper-spectral image data and information of said test solution or suspension; and processing and analyzing said hyper-spectral image data and information, for identifying and characterizing said hyper-spectrally active target in said test solution or suspension, thereby identifying and characterizing the object of interest in the sample of matter; wherein said preparing said test solution or suspension includes adding to said test solution or suspension a background reducing chemical, wherein said background reducing chemical reduces background interfering effects caused by presence of objects of non-interest in said test solution or suspension, during the hyper-spectral imaging and analysis, thereby increasing hyper-spectral detectability of said hyper-spectrally active target in said test solution or suspension; and wherein said generating and collecting said hyper-spectral image data and information of said test solution or suspension includes separately acquiring hyper-spectral image data and information of said objects of non-interest.