Computational time-of-flight diffuse optical tomography

Imaging through a strongly diffusive medium remains an outstanding challenge, in particular in applications in biological and medical imaging. Here, we propose a method based on a single-photon time-of-flight camera that allows, in combination with computational processing of the spatial and full temporal photon distribution data, imaging of an object embedded inside a strongly diffusive medium over more than 80 transport mean free paths. The technique is contactless and requires 1 s acquisition times, thus allowing Hz frame rate imaging. The imaging depth corresponds to several centimetres of human tissue and allows us to perform deep-body imaging as a proof of principle.

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Data availability

All data used in this work are available from https://doi.org/10.5525/gla.researchdata.642

Code availability

All codes used in this work are available from https://doi.org/10.5525/gla.researchdata.642

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Acknowledgements

D.F. acknowledges financial support the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK (grants EP/M006514/1 and EP/M01326X/1). Y.W. acknowledges financial support from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council, UK (grants EP/M008843/1 and EP/M011089/1).

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Physics and Astronomy, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK Ashley Lyons & Daniele Faccio
  2. School of Computing Science, University of Glasgow, Glasgow, UK Francesco Tonolini
  3. Institute of Photonics and Quantum Sciences, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK Alessandro Boccolini
  4. Institute of Sensors, Signals and System, Heriot-Watt University, Edinburgh, UK Audrey Repetti & Yves Wiaux
  5. Institute for Micro and Nano Systems, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK Robert Henderson
  1. Ashley Lyons