Interferometer-based synthetic multi-exposure speckle imaging (syMESI) method and system
AssigneeUniversity of South Florida
InventorsAshwin Parthasarathy, Abdul Mohaimen Safi
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Abstract
A SyntheticMulti-Exposure Speckle Imaging (syMESI) methodology necessarily utilizing an optical interferometer apparatus as part of the speckle imaging system to overcome the optical detector noise that conventionally limits the reliable and accurate determination of a speckle contrast characteristic at low exposure times. The use of such methodology enabled a quantitative determination of absolute value(s) of changes of motion at the target object (such as blood flow changes in tissue) at low photon budget of less than 40 counts of average detection intensity and/or quantitative imaging of the blood flow at the object in interoperative setting with a low-cost camera sensor.
Claims8
A speckle imaging system comprising:
- an optical illumination system of the speckle imaging system including a source of light and configured to produce a light output at an output end of the optical illumination system, wherein the speckle imaging system is configured to detect a motion at a scene;
- an optical interferometer apparatus of the speckle imaging system, the optical interferometer apparatus having a reference arm and a sample arm and optically coupled with the output end of the optical illumination system to receive light of the light output from the output end of the optical illumination system,
- an optical imaging system of the speckle imaging system, the optical imaging system containing an optical detector system that is optically coupled with an output end of the optical interferometer apparatus to receive the light of the light output through the optical interferometer apparatus;
- a computer system, operably connected with the optical imaging system and configured
- to receive an electrical signal therefrom,
- wherein the electrical signal represents a raw speckle image formed at the optical detector system in light output from the optical interferometer apparatus,
- wherein the light output includes sample light, that has interacted with a target sample in the sample arm and that contains a speckle pattern representing the target sample, and reference light;
- and
- a computer-readable tangible non-transitory medium comprising a computer-readable program code on which are stored computer-readable instructions such that, when the instructions are executed by a processor of the computer system, the instructions cause the processor at least to determine and/or display a speckle contrast characteristic of said raw speckle image,
- wherein the speckle imaging system is configured such that an optical phase difference between the sample light propagating through the sample arm and the reference light propagating through the reference arm during acquisition of the raw speckle image remains substantially unchanged.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.