Variable-motion optical tomography of small objects

A method for three dimensional (3D) reconstruction of an object of interest, the method comprising the steps of:

• (a) packing a plurality of objects of interest into a tubular container so that the plurality of objects of interest remain stationary within the tube, where an axis of rotation is aligned with a central axis of the tube;
• (b) illuminating the plurality of objects of interest with a plurality of optical projection beams;
• (c) translating the linear container until at least one object of interest is located within a region of the plurality of optical projection beams;
• (d) centering the at least one object of interest as necessary;
• (c) generating a set of projection images onto at least one detector surface at a plurality of radial angles that are perpendicular to the axis of rotation, where spaces between the plurality of optical projection beams and the at least one object of interest and spaces between the object and the at least one detector surface are filled with a material whose index of refraction is matched with that of the tabular container;
• (f) repeating the steps (b) through (e) until the objects of interest have been radially scanned;
• and
• (g) reconstructing a 3D image from the set of projection images.

A variable-motion optical tomography system comprising:

• a tubular container for holding objects of interest having a tube wall and a tube axis, wherein the objects of interest are packed in the tube so as to remain stationary relatively to the tubular container;
• a plurality of optical light sources arranged to project light round a circumference at the tube wall;
• a plurality of opposing detector surfaces arranged on a wider circumference in the same plane as the light sources, to form a reconstruction zone, so that each light source projects a beam through the tubular container onto a detector area to form projection images, such that one of the projection images does not overlap another on any of the plurality of opposing detector surfaces, and a central axis of each beam intersects the central axes of the other beams within the tube, where spaces between the plurality of optical light sources and the objects of interest and spaces between the objects of interest and the plurality of opposing detector surfaces are filled with a material whose index of refraction is matched with that of the tube;
• and
• means, coupled to the tube, for rotating and translating tubular container in a variable motion.