Patent ID: 8082015

Claim:
A method for determining one or more characteristics of tissue of a subject, the subject having a surface exposed to at least one light source, the method comprising: measuring a motion of moving scattering particles in the tissue, wherein the motion of the moving scattering particles is derived at least in part from light field fluctuations, the light field fluctuations measured, at least in part, by a light temporal autocorrelation function, the light field fluctuations caused, at least in part, by the moving scattering particles in the tissue and transmission of light through the tissue, the light produced by the least one light source; measuring blood oxygenation, oxy and deoxy-hemoglobin characteristics, hemodynamic characteristics, and scattering characteristics of the tissue, wherein the blood oxygenation, oxy and deoxy-hemoglobin characteristics, hemodynamic characteristics, and scattering characteristics are derived, at least in part, from the transmission of light through the tissue with respect to a wavelength of light, the oxy and deoxy-hemoglobin characteristics being further derived from absorption effects and scattering effects of the tissue on the transmitted light; determining blood flow rate characteristics based at least in part on collected optical data, the collected optical data based, at least in part, on the motion of the moving scattering particles, the absorption effects of the tissue, and the scattering effects of the tissue; and determining oxygen metabolism of the tissue and changes of the tissue based at least in part on the blood flow rate characteristics and the oxy and deoxy-hemoglobin characteristics, at least a portion of the tissue being at least one centimeter beneath the surface.