A sensor, such as a photoplethysmography sensor, for non-invasively monitoring a characteristic of an organism, such as a vital body sign. The sensor has multiple light sources disposed on a substrate and an array of optical probing channels for conveying light from the light sources to a probed region. Each detector pixel of an array of detector pixels receives light from a respective optical detection channel after interaction with a subregion of the probed region and spatial filtering, and generates a corresponding pixel signal. A processor derives a value of the vital body sign based at least upon the plurality of pixel signals
