Patent ID: 8634082

Claim:
A tomography system, comprising: a pulsed, tunable laser for generating pulsed light of a predeterminable wavelength and a first pulse repetition frequency, wherein the pulsed, tunable laser generates a reference signal characterized by the first pulse repetition frequency; a transmit fiber coupled to apply the pulsed light to tissue at a source position; a plurality of receive fibers each coupled to receive light from the tissue at a receive optode position, wherein there are a plurality of receive optode positions; detectors for transducing the collected light into a plurality of detection signals, a computer for receiving the plurality of detection signals and the reference signal and constructing a tomographic image of the tissue; a signal generator for generating a secondary signal characterized by a second pulse repetition frequency; a first mixer for mixing the secondary signal with the detection signals to form first heterodyned signals characterized by a third frequency; and a second mixer for mixing the secondary signal with the reference signal to form a second heterodyned signal characterized by the third frequency; wherein the computer is configured to receive the first and second heterodyned signals and construct the tomographic image of the tissue based at least in part on a comparison of the first and second heterodyned signals, and configured to use the reference signal to control reception of the detection signals.