Patent 7723506 was granted and assigned to Cilian AG on May, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
A method characterizes samples having units by monitoring fluctuating intensities of radiation emitted, scattered, and/or reflected by the units in at least one measurement volume, the monitoring being performed by at least one detection device, the method comprising the steps of: a) measuring in a repetitive mode a number of photon counts per time interval of defined length, b) determining a function of the number of photon counts per the time interval, and c) determining a function of specific brightness of the units on basis of the function of the number of photon counts.