A data acquisition system and method are described that may be used with various spectrometers. One version uses identical three-color LED light sources distributed through the containment volume: each source having a red light generating element, a yellow light generating element, and a green light generating element. With this simplified representation, an output value of a function may be determined based on an input value comprising a fixed point input mantissa and an input exponent. The artificial neural network outputs the property wherein the outputted property compensates for the influence of sensor standoff distance on each electrical measurement in the plurality of electrical measurements. Thereby, a storage capacity requirement from the buffer memory is reduced.