Sensing using polarization diversity and wavelength dependent backscatter

Abstract

Provided herein are systems and methods capable of detecting and discriminating and/or classifying hazardous biological agents or other hazardous agents. In one aspect, a system measures electromagnetic energy scattered by a material at the different polarizations states and wavelengths. The system then combines the measured electromagnetic wavelengths at the different polarization states and wavelengths into different combinations to produce input parameters for a classifier. The input parameters include both depolarization and wavelength-dependent elastic backscatter measurements of the material illuminated by transmitted electromagnetic energy. The combination of wavelength dependent depolarization measurements and wavelength dependent backscatter measurements provides a unique capability to classify (or discriminate) based on size, shape, and refractive index. The combined measurements provided in the input parameters increases the information available to the classifier to classify materials, enabling the classifier to classify a wider range of materials.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.