A system for capturing and transmitting analyte data pertaining to an unknown analyte. The system includes a device manager (102) and a processor manager (202). The device manager (102) is coupled to a number of module including a data capture module (104), a data formatting module (106) and a first input/output (I/O) module (108). The data capture module (104) is coupled to the device manager (102) for capturing the data for the unknown analyte at a first geographic location. The first data formatting module (106) is coupled to the device manager (102) for formatting or encoding the captured analyte data into a transmissible format before the captured analyte data are transmitted. The first I/O module (106) is coupled to the device manager for transmitting the captured analyte data via a computer network to a processor at a second geographic location. The processor manager (202) is also coupled to a number of modules including a data acquisition process (204), a second data formatting module (206), an analysis module (208), a second I/O module (210) and a database interface module (210). The data acquisition module (204) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for receiving encoded analyte data from the device manager (102). The second data formatting module (206) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for decoding the encoded analyte data received by the data acquisition module (204) so as to permit analysis to be performed. The database interface module (212) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for retrieving data of known analytes from an electronic library before the decoded captured analyte data are analyzed. In addition, the database interface module (212) can be used for updating the electronic library with the decoded captured analyte data. The analysis module (208) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for performing analysis on the decoded captured analyte data using data from the electronic library and generating an analysis result. The second I/O module (210) is coupled to the processor manager (202) for managing communications between the processor manager (202) and other entities such as the device manager (102) and the electronic library. Depending upon the embodiment, other modules can also exist.