Patent ID: 8712504

Claim:
A method of near-infrared optically imaging a three-dimensional object comprising: generating, using a surface rendering device, a three-dimensional surface mesh corresponding to a surface of a target tissue object; defining the location of the surface mesh with respect to a reference point; tracing a hand-held probe on the surface of the target tissue object to collect sensor data on a characteristic of the target tissue object at a plurality of positions on the target object, the hand-held probe having a probe area; tracking the position and orientation of the hand-held probe with respect to the reference point as the hand-held probe is moved along the surface of the target tissue object; receiving first tracking data, the first tracking data indicating a first probe location and a first probe orientation; receiving first sensor data of the target tissue object as detected by the hand-held probe at the first probe location and the first probe orientation; co-registering the first sensor data and the first tracking data on the surface mesh; displaying the surface mesh, the surface mesh having the first sensor data projected on the surface mesh over a corresponding first area of the surface mesh, the first area of the surface mesh corresponding to the probe area; receiving second tracking data, the second tracking data indicating a second probe location and a second probe orientation; receiving second sensor data of the target tissue object as detected by the hand-held probe at the second probe location and the second probe orientation; co-registering the second sensor data and the second tracking data on the surface mesh; and updating the displayed surface mesh to include the first sensor data projected over the first area of the surface mesh and the second sensor data projected on the surface mesh over a corresponding second area of the surface mesh, the second area of the surface mesh corresponding to the probe area.