Image enhancer for detecting and identifying objects in turbid media

An image enhancer for detecting and identifying objects in turbid media, the image enhancer comprising:

• a laser for emitting an optical signal toward an object in a turbid medium;
• a modulator for modulating laser intensity of the optical signal;
• a radio frequency (RF) source for driving the modulator and for providing a reference signal;
• an optical detector for detecting a portion of the modulated optical signal that is reflected from the object, the optical detector converting the detected portion of the modulated optical signal into an electrical signal, the electrical signal having a RF component and a direct current (DC) component;
• a bias-T for separating the electrical signal into RF and DC components;
• an in-phase and quadrature (I/Q) for mixing the RF component of the electrical signal with the reference signal and producing an in-phase signal component and a quadrature phase signal component that can be filtered, digitized and processed such that both contrast and range images of the object are produced;
• a first low pass filter;
• and,
• a second low pass filter, the in-phase signal component passing through the first low pass filter prior to being digitized, the quadrature phase signal component passing through the second low pass filter prior to being digitized.