Method and apparatus for examining the interior of semi-opaque objects
First Claim
1. A method for the examination of the interior of a semi-opaque object by collimated light means comprised of the following steps:
- A. forming a narrow, collimated beam of light;
B. passing such beam into an optical transmission means;
C. coupling said optical transmission means onto said semi-opaque object at a specified entrance surface region using a refractive index matching means, suitably selected to minimize the refractive index discontinuity between that of said optical transmission means and that of said semi-opaque object;
D. coupling that fraction of said light which has scattered within and impinged upon a specified surface exit region of said object, by similar refractive index matching means to an optical collection means at said specified surface region;
E. coupling said optical collection means into a light amplification means which preserves the spatial intensity variations incident thereon and collected at said specified surface region by said optical collection means;
F. impinging said amplified light on an array of photodetectors;
G. converting each detected intensity corresponding to each photodetector element of said array into a numerical value and then transmitting each such value into a memory storage means;
H. processing and analyzing said numerical values in said memory means by computer means; and
characterizing thereby the region of said examined object causing the spatial variation of said intensity values;
I. repeating said measurement at different orientations of said incident coupled optical transmission means and said coupled optical collection means with respect to said specified surface regions;
J. varying said entrance and exit surface regions and repeating steps G, H and I;
K. characterizing thereby the inhomogeneities within said semi-opaque object causing the spatial variations of the said detected intensity values.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A highly collimated light beam, such as produced by a laser, is coupled by optical means directly onto a semi-opaque object such as a human breast. The light transmitted and scattered therein is collected at a fixed surface element and direction relative to the incident light, and coupled optically into an image intensifier, preserving the spatial intensity variations passing through said fixed surface element. The intensified image is then collected on an array of detector elements which digitizes and then transfers said preserved image into memory means where it is processed to characterize the interior of said object. This invention has particular application to the early detection of breast cancer.
74 Citations
47 Claims
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1. A method for the examination of the interior of a semi-opaque object by collimated light means comprised of the following steps:
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A. forming a narrow, collimated beam of light; B. passing such beam into an optical transmission means; C. coupling said optical transmission means onto said semi-opaque object at a specified entrance surface region using a refractive index matching means, suitably selected to minimize the refractive index discontinuity between that of said optical transmission means and that of said semi-opaque object; D. coupling that fraction of said light which has scattered within and impinged upon a specified surface exit region of said object, by similar refractive index matching means to an optical collection means at said specified surface region; E. coupling said optical collection means into a light amplification means which preserves the spatial intensity variations incident thereon and collected at said specified surface region by said optical collection means; F. impinging said amplified light on an array of photodetectors; G. converting each detected intensity corresponding to each photodetector element of said array into a numerical value and then transmitting each such value into a memory storage means; H. processing and analyzing said numerical values in said memory means by computer means; and
characterizing thereby the region of said examined object causing the spatial variation of said intensity values;I. repeating said measurement at different orientations of said incident coupled optical transmission means and said coupled optical collection means with respect to said specified surface regions; J. varying said entrance and exit surface regions and repeating steps G, H and I; K. characterizing thereby the inhomogeneities within said semi-opaque object causing the spatial variations of the said detected intensity values. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 43, 44, 45, 46, 47)
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22. An instrument for the examination of the interior of a semi-opaque object by collimated light means comprised of:
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A. Collimated light means producing a narrow beam of light; B. Collimated light beam optical transmission means C. Coupled onto said semi-opaque object by refractive index matching means suitably selected to minimize the refractive index discontinuity between that of said optical transmission means and that of said semi-opaque object at a specified entrance surface; D. Optical collection means;
said optical collection means being coupled by similar refractive index matching means to a specified exit surface region of said object through which light scattered within said object has scattered thereto;E. Light amplification means whereby light collected from said object in step D is amplified in intensity while maintaining its spatial variations at said optical collection means; F. Optical lens means by which said amplified light spatial variation is imaged on G. Photodetector array means transmitting output signals proportional to incident intensities to H. Analog-to-digital conversion means whereby each signal at each photo-detector element in converted into a digital representation stored in I. Memory means of a J. Computer processing means. - View Dependent Claims (23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42)
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Specification