1. A system comprising: a first illumination source configured to illuminate a target area comprising an unknown material, to thereby generate a first plurality of interacted photons wherein said first plurality of interacted photons are selected from the group consisting of: photons reflected by said material, photons scattered by said material, photons plasma emitted by said material, and combinations thereof; a first optical system coupled to said laser light source to direct light to the target area; a video capture device that outputs a dynamic image of said target area; a first two-dimensional array of detection elements; a second optical system that collects at least one of said reflected photons, said scattered photons, and said plasma emitted photons, and directs the collected reflected photons to said first two-dimensional array of detection elements, wherein said first two-dimensional array of detection elements is coupled to said second optical system, and further directs at least one of said scattered photons and said plasma emitted photons to a fiber array spectral translator device, wherein said fiber array spectral translator device is coupled to said second optical system; wherein said first two-dimensional array detects in a spatially accurate manner said reflected photons received from said second optical system to thereby generate at least one of: a plurality of spatially accurate wavelength resolved short wave infrared images and a plurality of spatially resolved short wave infrared spectra; wherein said fiber array spectral translator device outputs at least one of the following received from said second optical system: said collected scattered photons, and said collected plasma emitted photons, and includes a two-dimensional array of optical fibers drawn into a one-dimensional fiber stack so as to effectively convert a two-dimensional field of view into a curvilinear field of view; at least one spectrometer coupled to said one-dimensional fiber stack of said fiber array spectral translator device, wherein an entrance slit of said spectrometer is coupled to said one dimensional fiber stack to perform at least one of the following: disperse said scattered photons output by said fiber array spectral translator device to generate a plurality of spatially resolved Raman spectra, and disperse said plasma emitted photons output by said fiber array spectral translator device to generate a plurality of spatially resolved atomic spectra; and wherein said second two dimensional array of detection elements coupled to said spectrograph detects at least one of: said plurality of spatially resolved Raman spectra, said plurality of spatially resolved atomic spectra, and combinations thereof.