Patent ID: 7720525

Claim:
A method for optical imaging of a volume of interest (VOI) in a turbid medium, the method comprising: i) optically scanning the VOI at a plurality of source and detector geometries using continuous wave (CW) to generate CW data; ii) optically scanning the VOI at a plurality of source and detector geometries using time-domain (TD) to generate data representing at least a portion of a measured temporal point spread function (TPSF), said TPSF data being measured from a plurality of light pulses from which a statistical average of light received as a function of time is obtained, said TPSF data yielding information about absorption and scatter within said VOI; iii) combining information extracted from the CW data with the TPSF data to improve an accuracy of imaging using the measured TPSF data whereby an improved image accuracy of the VOI of the turbid medium is generated with fewer said light pulses and a shorter acquisition time by using both time-domain and continuous wave modalities; and iv) generating an improved image of the VOI of the turbid medium.