Patent Document ID: 9964747
Application ID: 14406654
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An imaging apparatus for imaging a biological object under investigation, comprising: a light source device arranged for an illumination of the object, a light detector device arranged for detection of light emitted by the object in response to the illumination of the object, an acoustic detector device arranged for collecting acoustic signals at multiple frequencies, generated in the object in response to the illumination of the object, the acoustic detector device having a frequency response wherein the acoustic detector device produces signals that depend on the frequencies of the collected acoustic signals, an image reconstruction device arranged for reconstructing an optical image of the object having a first resolution and an opto-acoustic image of the object having a second resolution, a resolution adaptation device configured to adjust imaging properties of the opto-acoustic image, said imaging properties including at least one of the second resolution and an imaging depth of the opto-acoustic image, wherein the second resolution of the opto-acoustic image is adjusted by at least one of the following: adapting the frequency response with the imaging depth and subjecting the collected acoustic signals to at least one frequency filtering in dependency on the imaging depth, and the image reconstruction device is further arranged for combining the optical image and the opto-acoustic image into a hybrid optical/opto-acoustic image wherein the first resolution is gradually exchanged for the second resolution at increasing imaging depths to obtain a hybrid optical/opto-acoustic image of varying resolution with imaging depth.