Contrast and resolution analysis of angular domain imaging for iterative optical projection tomography reconstruction

摘要

Angular domain imaging (ADI) generates a projection image of an attenuating target within a turbid medium by employing a silicon micro-tunnel array to reject photons that have deviated from the initial propagation direction. In this imaging method, image contrast and resolution are position dependent. The objective of this work was to first characterize the contrast and resolution of the ADI system at a multitude of locations within the imaging plane. The second objective was to compare the reconstructions of different targets using filtered back projection and iterative reconstruction algorithms. The ADI system consisted of a diode laser laser (808nm, CW, ThorLabs) with a beam expander for illumination of the sample cuvette. At the opposite side of the cuvette, an Angular Filter Array (AFA) of 80 μm x 80 μm square-shaped tunnels 1 cm in length was used to reject the transmitted scattered light. Image-forming light exiting the AFA was detected by a linear CCD (16-bit, Mightex). Our approach was to translate two point attenuators (0.5 mm graphite rod, 0.368 mm drill bit) submerged in a 0.6% Intralipid^TM dilution using a SCARA robot (Epson E2S351S) to cover a 37x37 and 45x45 matrix of grid points in the imaging plane within the 1 cm path length sample cuvette. At each grid point, a one-dimensional point-spread distribution was collected and system contrast and resolution were measured. Then, the robot was used to rotate the target to collect projection images at several projection angles of various objects, and reconstructed with a filtered back projection and an iterative reconstruction algorithm.