A high speed, low cost, wide spectrum light scanning and sensor unit (10)
for receiving reflected light from an object and diffracting the light into segments
of wavelengths and a linear sensor array (32) having elements positioned
to receive the segments and to measure the relative magnitude of such segments
to define a spectral distribution of the object together with a digital identifier-controller
(36) connected to said sensing device and having a memory for memorizing
a spectral distribution of light representing a first standard object, and additional
memory for receiving a spectral distributions of other objects and programmable
logic circuitry containing a program for determining the similarity between the
standard object and the other objects.
