1. A method for material classification of an object fabricated from an unknown material, comprising: illuminating an object by multiplexed illumination; measuring multiple spectral bands of light reflected from the illuminated object; and classifying the material from which the object is fabricated using the measured reflected light; wherein with respect to the measured multiple spectral bands, wavelengths for the multiple spectral bands are selected by analysis of a database of labeled training material samples within a multi-class classification framework, captured using a relatively large number of spectral bands, so as to select a subset of a relatively fewer number of spectral bands, wherein the selected spectral bands in the subset have a significant aptitude for distinguishing between different classifications of materials in the database.