Imaging through scattering media

An imaging method performed by a processing system including at least one processor, comprising:

• controlling a laser light source to transmit light to a target object;
• detecting interference formed on a digital sensor array by a reference beam from the transmitted light and reflected light from the target object, the reflected light either travelling through or being reflected by a scattering medium located between the target object and the digital sensor array;
• jointly estimating, based on the detected interference, at least one parameter defining the scattering behavior of the scattering medium and an image of the target object;
• and
• outputting the jointly estimated scattering parameter and an image of the target object,
• wherein the jointly estimating includes:
• determining an intermediate estimate of a transmission matrix of at least one diffuser corresponding to the scattering medium;
• for each of a plurality of speckle realizations, inverse propagating wave fields detected at the digital sensor array, back to the estimated diffuser, through the estimated diffuser, and back to a location of the target object;
• determining an intermediate estimate of an incoherent object by speckle averaging at a plane of the target object;
• determining a performance metric of the estimated incoherent object;
• and
• maximizing the performance metric by iteratively changing the estimate of the transmission matrix.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing instructions which, when executed by a processing system including at least one processor, causes the processing system to perform:

• controlling a laser light source to transmit light to a target object;
• detecting interference formed on a digital sensor array by a reference beam from the transmitted light and reflected light from the target object, the reflected light either travelling through or being reflected by a scattering medium located between the target object and the digital sensor array;
• jointly estimating, based on the detected interference, at least one parameter defining the scattering behavior of the particular scattering medium and an image of the target object;
• and
• outputting the jointly estimated scattering parameter and an image of the target object,
• wherein the jointly estimating includes:
• determining an intermediate estimate of a transmission matrix of at least one diffuser corresponding to the scattering medium;
• for each of a plurality of speckle realizations, inverse propagating wave fields detected at the digital sensor array, back to the estimated diffuser, through the estimated diffuser, and back to a location of the target object;
• determining an intermediate estimate of an incoherent object by speckle averaging at a plane of the target object;
• determining a performance metric of the estimated incoherent object;
• and
• maximizing the performance metric by iteratively changing the estimate of the transmission matrix.