Patent ID: 6850656

Claim:
A method for local and superficial characterization of a turbid medium using the following parameters: 1) the refractive index n of the turbid medium 2) the absorption coefficient μ a of the turbid medium 3) the reduced scattering coefficient μ s ′ of the turbid medium 4) the phase function parameter γ=(1−g 2 )/(1−g 1 ) of the turbid media, where g 1 and g 2 are the first two moments of the Legendre polynomial development of the phase function p, the method comprising the steps of: measuring the spatially-resolved reflectance R(ρ) of the turbid medium (ρ being the source-detector distance) using an illumination beam as a source and an optical detector, mathematically processing R(ρ) to compute at least one of the said parameters: n, μ a , μ s ′, γ and/or the variations, in time and/or space, of at least one of the said parameters: Δn, Δμ a , Δμ s ′, Δγ, whereby an “inverse problem”, which comprises extracting the optical coefficients from the spatially resolved reflectance data is solved, and whereby a “direct problem” comprises computing the spatially resolved reflectance from the values of the optical coefficients n, μ a , μ s ′, γ involved in a model of propagation of the light in turbid medium and whereby the said “model” incorporates a Legendre polynomial development to the second order of the said “phase function”, and whereby the said “phase parameter” γ is introduced in the computation as an independent parameter.