Non-Invasive Determination of Characteristics of a Sample

A method of registering and enrolling a sample in a sample scanning and analysis system including a storage system, comprising the steps of:

• scanning the sample with a scanning apparatus, the scanning apparatus including a transmitter for transmitting a series of electromagnetic signals, each of the signals having a transmitted amplitude over a plurality of sample points within a range of frequencies, and a receiver for receiving the series of signals as the series of signals are reflected from or transmitted through the sample;
• generating a series of spectral data sets representing at least a scanned amplitude of each of the signals over the plurality of sample points;
• and
• generating one or more composite spectrograms from the series of spectral data sets;
• analyzing the composite spectrograms to identify a characteristic of the sample having a first variance that is minimized across the one or more composite spectrograms and a second variance that is maximally different from a plurality of characteristics corresponding to a plurality of other samples in the storage system;
• storing the characteristic in the storage system;
• and
• building a profile of the sample in the storage system, the profile being derived from the characteristic.