Patent ID: 7551950

Claim:
A method for quantifying at least one of scattering property, absorption coefficient or chromophore concentrations of a physical medium, said method comprising the steps of: (a) using a wave source, introducing into said physical medium, at a first site, an input modulated signal with a modulation frequency (F n ); (b) using a wave detector, detecting, at a second site, an output modulated signal migrated over a migration path in said physical medium from said input modulated signal; (c) comparing said output modulated signal with said input modulated signal and measuring therefrom a phase shift (φ) between said input modulated signal and said output modulated signal; (d) repeating steps (a)-(c) at two or more modulation frequencies and calculating an average scattering property and absorption coefficient of said physical medium using the following equation: ϕ = ( ∑ n = 0 1 ⁢ a n ⁢ μ s ′ ⁢ n ) ⁢ μ a - 1 + ( ∑ n = 0 2 ⁢ b n ⁢ μ s ′ ⁢ n ) ⁢ μ a - 0.5 + ∑ n = 0 1 ⁢ c n ⁢ μ s ′ ⁢ n wherein μ a is the absorption coefficient, μ s ′ is the effective scattering property of said physical medium, and a n , b n , and c n are parameters determined by said modulation frequency (F n ) and a distance (D) between said first site and said second site using a fitting algorithm.