Abstract

The diffuse optical tomography has been gaining more attention from medical imaging community for its potential applications in oncology, neurology and other clinical areas. It allows users to probe tissue function non-invasively with relatively inexpensive and safe instrumentation. We have designed a simple and inexpensive DOT set-up, which could be exploited for an educational laboratory set-up for a biomedical optics class. Students can learn the basis of medical tomography and concepts of multiple photon scattering and absorption through building this instrumentation. We have exploited the LEGO Mindstorms NXT platform as a basis of setup, which controls two motors and photo-diodes for the data acquisition. Students have also learned the concept of computational tomography using standard numerical software and reconstructed three dimensional images of hidden object in the target material. The entire procedure was tested and developed in the summer project that involved a high school student and a group of post-doctoral fellows.

© 2012 Optical Society of America