Hyperspectral Imaging Systems & Spectroscopy Components for Fast, Actionable Results

Hyperspectral Imaging Explained

Hyperspectral imaging is a technique that acquires and analyzes a portion of the spectrum of light (often a broader portion than our human eyes can see) in very fine detail instead of simply assigning light into a small number of bins at each pixel. This enables detection of otherwise visually indistinguishable substances because the unique spectral “signature” of a individual object can be detected and separated from the rest of the image. Humans see color as combinations of red, green, and blue in a very small part of the electromagnetic spectrum. The addition of bands represent a multispectral example, where more than three areas of the spectrum are captured and analyzed. The cells in our retinae are sensitive to three colors: red, green, and blue. And combinations of these three colors allow us to see subtle shades of orange, purple, turquoise, and more. However, we cannot distinguish the difference between, say, a pure yellow color and a mixture of red and green colors. Hyperspectral imaging can.