Systems and methods for determining spectra using dynamic karhunen-loeve algorithms with measurements from led color sensor

A spectral determination system, comprising:

• a plurality of illuminants;
• at least one photodetector that detects light originating from the plurality of illuminants and reflected by a target;
• and
• a controller that:
• normalizes a plurality of illuminant sensor outputs obtained from the at least one photodetector, each illuminant sensor output corresponding to a respective one of the plurality of illuminants and indicating an actual reflectance value obtained from the target at a particular wavelength of light;
• obtains reference data from a reference database that correlates Karhunen-Loeve coefficients of reference spectra with a corresponding plurality of normalized illuminant sensor outputs for reference colors, the reference data including data in a neighborhood of each reflectance value;
• and
• determines a spectrum Ŝ based on the illuminant sensor outputs and the reference data, wherein the determining step places greater importance on the data in the neighborhood of each reflectance value.