Methods and devices for optically determining a characteristic of a substance

A device, comprising:

• an electromagnetic radiation source configured to optically interact with a sample and at least two integrated computational elements, the at least two integrated computational elements being configured to produce optically interacted light, wherein at least one of the at least two integrated computational elements is configured to be disassociated with a characteristic of the sample and thereby configured to return a regression vector disassociated with the characteristic of the sample;
• and
• a first detector arranged to receive the optically interacted light from the at least two integrated computational elements and thereby generate a first signal corresponding to the characteristic of the sample.

A device, comprising:

• at least two integrated computational elements configured to receive electromagnetic radiation emitted from a sample and produce optically interacted light, at least one of the at least two integrated computational elements being configured to be disassociated with a characteristic of the sample and thereby configured to return a regression vector disassociated with the characteristic of the sample;
• and
• at least one detector arranged to receive the optically interacted light from the at least two integrated computational elements and thereby generate a first signal and a second signal, wherein the first and second signals are computationally combined to determine the characteristic of the sample.