Patent ID: 8717551

Claim:
A system comprising: a light modulation unit configured to modulate the incident light stream, wherein the light modulation unit includes an array of light modulating elements; a spectral sensing device; a processing unit configured to: search an intensity field of the incident light stream to identify a spatial subset of the intensity field that at least partially contains one or more atypical regions within the intensity field, wherein said searching the intensity field includes: (a) directing the light modulation unit to modulate the incident light stream with a first sequence of spatial patterns so that the light modulation unit produces a first modulated light stream; (b) receiving wavelength spectra of the first modulated light stream from the spectral sensing device, wherein each of the wavelength spectra is measured by the spectral sensing device in response to a corresponding one of the spatial patterns of the first sequence; (c) selecting current spatial patterns to be injected into the first sequence of spatial patterns based on an analysis of the wavelength spectra corresponding to previous spatial patterns of the first sequence; direct the light modulation unit to modulate the incident light stream with a first restricted spatial pattern so the light modulation unit produces a first restricted light stream, where the first restricted spatial pattern is restricted to the spatial subset; and execute a spectral classification algorithm on a first restricted wavelength spectrum measured by the spectral sensing device in response to the first restricted light stream, wherein said executing classifies the first restricted wavelength spectrum into one of a plurality of classes.