A SEMINAR REPORT

on

REVERSE TIME MIGRATION BASED OPTICAL

IMAGING
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
award of the degree of
MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY
in
ELECTRONICS AND COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING
(SIGNAL PROCESSING)
Submitted by
RESHMI L S
(SCT16ECSP10)

DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION ENGINEERING

SREE CHITRA THIRUNAL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING,
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM 695 018
NOVEMBER 2016

SREE CHITRA THIRUNAL COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING,

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM - 695 018.
DEPARTMENT OF ELECTRONICS & COMMUNICATION
ENGINEERING.

CERTIFICATE
Certified that the seminar work entitled REVERSE TIME MIGRATION
BASED OPTICAL IMAGING is a bonfide work carried out in the first semester
by RESHMI L S (SCT16ECSP10) in partial fulfillment of the requirements for
the award of the Degree of Master of Technology in Electronics and Communication
Engineering with specialization in Signal Processing,from APJ ABDUL KALAM TECHNOLOGICAL UNIVERSITY during the academic year 2016-2017.

SEMINAR GUIDE

SEMINAR COORDINATOR

Smt.AKHILARAJ D
Assistant Professor,
Dept. of ECE

Smt. SMITHA P S
Assistant Professor,
Dept. of ECE

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT

& SEMINAR COORDINATOR

Dr.SHEEJA M.K.
Professor,
Dept. of ECE

Acknowledgment
For the success of a mission, there would be people behind the scene who contribute
a great deal. I take this opportunity to acknowledge all those who helped me for this
seminar.
I would like to express my deep gratitude to our respected Principal Prof. (Dr.)
Jayasudha J. S, for giving me the opportunity to present this seminar as per the schedule. With immense pleasure I would like to express my sincere and profound gratitude
to our Head of the Department, Prof. (Dr.) Sheeja M. K, and seminar coordinator
Smt. Smitha P. S, Asst. Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication, for
their valuable support and guidance
I am inexplicably indebted to my seminar guide, Smt. AKHILARAJ D, Assistant
Professor, Department of Electronics and Communication, SCT College of Engineering,
for her valuable guidance, expert advice, suggestions and encouragement.
Special gratitude to my parents and my friends for their cooperation in all measure.
Above all, I would like to thank the Almighty for His immeasurable blessings showered
upon me to make this venture a success.
RESHMI L S

Abstract

We theoretically demonstrated a new optical imaging technique based on reversetime migration (RTM) for reconstructing optical structures in homogeneous media for
the rst time. RTM is a powerful wave-equation-based method to reconstruct the image
of the structure by modeling the wave propagation inside the media with both forward
modeling and reverse-time extrapolation. While RTM is commonly used with acoustic
seismic waves, this paper represents the rst effort to develop optical RTM imaging method
for biomedical research. To rene the image quality, we further developed new methods
to suppress the low-wavenumber artifact (LWA). When com- pared with the conventional
means for LWA suppression such as Laplacian ltering, illumination normalization, and the
ratio method, our new derivative-based and power-image methods are able to signicantly
reduce LWA, resulting in high-quality reconstructed images with sufcient contrasts and
spatial resolutions for structure identication. The optical RTM imaging technique may
provide a new platform for non-invasive optical imaging of structures in deep layers of
tissues for biomedical applications.
Index Terms - Biomedical optical imaging, image processing, optical tomography,
time-resolved imaging, tomographic reconstruction.

Contents

List of Figures

ii

1 Introduction

2 Reverse-time migration

3 Principal of reverse-time migration

4 Reverse-time migration in lossy media

5 Low-wavenumber artifacts in RTM

11

6 Results and analysis

14
6.1 Ring structural model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
6.2 DNA Phantom Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
6.3 Brain Phantom Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17
7 Conclusion

19

Bibliography

20

List of Figures

3.1

Schematic of principal of reverse-time migration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

4.1

RTM images of a point diffractor . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

6.1
6.2
6.3

Normalised reconstructed RTM images of a ring structural model . . . . . . 15

Normalised reconstructed RTM images of a DNA structural model . . . . . 16
Normalised reconstructed RTM images of a Brain structural model . . . . . 17

ii

Chapter 1

Introduction

In biomedical research and clinical applications, optical imaging is an essential

technology to monitor disease progression and therapeutic response at the molecular, cell,
tissue, and whole-body levels. It is expected to have a substantial impact on the prevention
and treatment of cancer and other lethal diseases. This originates from the potential
benets that optical imaging could provide, such as (i) both functional and structural
images with a high spatial resolution at micro- to nanometer levels; (ii) high biochemical
sensitivity; (iii) non-invasive and non-ionizing; (iv) portable and cost-effective; (v) realtime, in-situ, and in-vivo imaging; (vi) adaptability to microscopes and endoscopes to
expand their applicability to nearly all biomedical elds; and (vii) quantitative information
for objective diagnosis.
In recent years near infrared optical tomography (OT) has been extensively investigated as a new biomedical imaging modality, such as diffuse optical tomography (DOT),
diffuse correlation spectroscopy and tomography (DCS/DCT), and uorescence tomography. In OT, a laser is typically used as the source. Optical bers are usually adopted to
deliver laser pulses to several locations around the organ of interest and to collect signals
from the body inside. OT has shown great promise in oxygenation monitoring, brain
imaging, and breast cancer detection, etc. Based on the linear transport theory OT reconstructs a spatial map of the optical scattering coefcient, absorption coefcient, or both,
from optical measurements at the surface, by modeling the photon propagation inside the
deep tissues. Yet the diffusion approximation of light in the tissue impairs the spatial
resolution of the reconstructed OT images. In contrast, the nite-difference time-domain
1

CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION
method (FDTD) potentially offers higher resolution and accuracy of reconstructed images
due to the fact that it carries all the information about the phase and coherence of the
wave front. Furthermore, new ultrafast technologies have been developed for the measurement of ultrafast optical pulses in both amplitude and phase such as Frequency Resolved
Optical Gating(FROG),time lens based on nonlinear parametric conversion, and Spectral
Phase Interferometry for Direct Field Reconstruction (SPIDER). With advent of these
new ultrafast measurement technologies, the imaging reconstruction algorithms are also
necessary to step forward to achieve optical images with higher spatial resolutions and
higher image contrasts.
In this manuscript, we will introduce a new image processing technique, optical reversetime migration (RTM), for non-invasive optical imaging of structures in deep layers of
tissues. RTM is a two-way wave-equation migration imaging technique, commonly used
in seismic imaging for petroleum exploration. The optical RTM in this report is demonstrated to reconstruct the image of the structure by modeling the wave propagation inside
the tissues with both forward modeling and reverse-time extrapolation using Maxwells
equations in optics instead of elastodynamic equations in seismics. It is implemented
by using the staggered-grid FDTD method in the optical domain.The present study is
the rst report infusing the concept of RTM in the biomedical optical imaging area. In
addition, the low-wavenumber artifact (LWA) which originates from unwanted migration
energy away from the reecting interfaces in RTM, often leads to uncorrelated images and
impaired signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Herein we proposed new methods for LWA suppression in a few phantom models. The image quality was signicantly improved by ltering
the contribution of LWA through the new LWA reduction methods. The optical RTM
technique can potentially provide a new scheme for non-invasive optical tomography in
biomedical applications.

SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

Chapter 2

Reverse-time migration

RTM was rst introduced in seismology for the rst time by Whitmore at the Migration Research Workshop of the 52nd Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) Meeting in Dallas in 1982.Shortly thereafter ,virtually identical algorithms were presented
by McMechan and Baysal in 1982 and 1983.The RTM method is based on a two-way
wave-equation, which forward extrapolates a source wavefield and backward extrapolates
a receiver wavefield, followed by imaging formation via applying an imaging condition.
Since RTM is based on the full wave equation which is closely related to the full wavefield inversion, it is very faithful in reproducing all kinds of wave propagation phenomena
(e.g., singly-scattered waves, multiply-scattered waves, reection waves, refraction waves,
diffraction waves, and evanescent waves).Therefore, RTM has no dipping angle limits of
structures in migration (i.e., thus even vertical boundaries or lower edges of objects can
be imaged), no evanescent energy issue, and can create an image of the inside of complex
structures.
RTM propagates events both downward and upward through the earth model, explicitly handling turning waves and all other complex propagation paths. In many cases the
ability to make use of these complex wave modes allows imaging of parts of the subsurface
that otherwise have poor direct illumination.

Chapter 3

Principal of reverse-time migration

Figure 3.1: Schematic of principal of reverse-time migration

CHAPTER 3. PRINCIPAL OF REVERSE-TIME MIGRATION

Fig.3.1 illustrates the principle of RTM for a two-dimensional (2D) case with
(1)coordinates position (horizontal) and position (vertical) in structural gures and (2)coordinates position (horizontal) and time (vertical) in the measurement data gure. In
an experiment, many sources and receivers are deployed at the surface of the measured
medium, and measurement data are acquired by receivers. A data trace is dened as data
collected from one source-receiver pair. A term, gather, means a collection of data
traces measured by receivers which share some common geometric attribute (e.g., same
source ,same receiver, etc).In Fig3.1,we used the common shot gather (CSG) where the
data traces of the gather come from a same single source (i.e., shot) and many receivers.
One CSG consists of the data traces from only one shot (i.e., source) and one experiment
consists of many CSGs from many shots. The recording time is sufciently long to acquire
multiple reections and to collect sufcient data to achieve a successful reconstruction of
each reection or diffraction point for better spatial resolutions during the migration (or
imaging) process .A structural model needs to be built for the imaging process. RTM falls
into the category of the wavefield continuation method, which has two main components
of wavefield propagation and image formation. There are three primary steps in the RTM
implementation:

STEP 1-FORWARD SIMULATION

STEP 2-BACKWARD SIMULATION
STEP 3-IMAGING
STEP 1 FORWARD SIMULATION (forward modeling): the source wavefield is
propagated starting at the shot position with a source wavelet function in a structural
model. The source wavefield is continued along the time axis and it is propagated forward
in time.
STEP 2 BACKWARD SIMULATION (reverse-time extrapolation): the receiver waveSCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

CHAPTER 3. PRINCIPAL OF REVERSE-TIME MIGRATION

field is propagated starting at the corresponding receiver positions and the time-re- versed
measured data is used as a source function with reverse-time extrapolations in the same
structural model. The receiver wavefield is continued along the time axis but it is propagated backward in time (i.e., reverse-time)
STEP 3 IMAGING: one correlation image of one CSG is formed by cross-correlating
the two wavefields under Claerbout imaging condition .
The Claerbout imaging condition states that reectors exist at points in the ground
where the rst arrival of the down going wave is time coincident with the up going wave.
Finally, the correlation images of all CSGs are summed together to obtain the stacked
migration image : Im(z,x)

Im(z, x) =

S(t, z, x)R(t, z, x)

(3.1)

In addition, FDTD-based image reconstruction algorithms using Maxwells equations

have been an intriguing area of study. The time reversal of electromagnetic (TR-EM)
wave method, in particular, has been successfully developed for imaging applications in
the microwave and millimeter wave frequency ranges, and it has the potential for clinical
implementations, e.g., breast cancer detection. TR-EM is a reverse-time-extrapolation
based inversion algorithm, in which signals from scattering measurements are back propagated to achieve a focusing effect on a scatterer (i.e., tumor tissues in the breast). Nowadays, in light of the eld equivalence theorem that allows for treating boundary conditions
as equivalent sources, like RTM, the TR-EM generally treat the recorded data at the
receivers as time-dependent secondary sources that broadcast energy back into the media
as opposed to treating them as boundary conditions at the measurement surface.
As a consequence, both TR-EM and RTM use the same update equations for both
the forward modeling (source wavefield) and the backward modeling (receiver wave- eld),
exploiting the time-reversal invariance of Maxwells equations in the process of doing so.
The difference between TR-EM and RTM lies in the imaging condition, which leads to that

SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

CHAPTER 3. PRINCIPAL OF REVERSE-TIME MIGRATION

TR-EM reconstructs images by using only the backward modeling without the forward
modeling while RTM utilizes both the forward modeling and the backward modeling.
Typically, TR-EM images are formed at when the receiver wavefield refocuses back to
the initial scattering target in the backward simulation. In contrast, RTM images are
commonly plotted by cross-correlating the source wavefield in the forward modeling and
the receiver wave eld in the backward modeling. As such, the cross-correlation imaging
condition delineates the target location in RTM. Furthermore, with the assistance of
velocity model building technique . RTM is able to enhance the image delity via the
application of the forward modeling and the input structural model.

SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

Chapter 4

Reverse-time migration in lossy

media

It is worth noting that Maxwells equations are generally not time reversal invariant
when a lossy medium is involved such as attenuating biological media at optical frequencies. Since the traveling waves are attenuated during both forward and back-propagation
in a lossy medium, wavefields in the back- propagation process can be dramatically degraded relative to the lossless case. In such scenarios, the time reversal operation in the
lossless media cannot be directly applied. Therefore, special compensation treatments of
losses are required to be taken in the backward simulation of RTM. To address this issue,
several loss compensation methods have been reported in the time reversal community
such as amplitude compensation inverse ltering ,and inverted-loss (or gain) medium .
In the seismic RTM algorithm, the inverted-loss medium method is usually adopted.
In TR-EM, the inverted-loss medium method showed that propagation in a lossy medium
will be time reversal invariant if the sign of the conductivity is reversed in the backpropagation, which assumes the EM waves are propagating in a ctitious inverted-loss (or
gain) medium in the backward simulation. In our backward simulation ,we adopted the
inverted-loss medium method of TR-EM with a reversed-sign conductivity to satisfy time
reversal invariance of Maxwells equations. To validate the inverted-loss medium method,
we utilized the point diffractor model of Fig. 4.1 to study variations of its resolution and
intensity versus the conductivity variation in RTM imaging with the cross-correlation

CHAPTER 4. REVERSE-TIME MIGRATION IN LOSSY MEDIA

imaging condition. Four sources (red stars in Fig. 4.1) at centers of four sides were shot
and thus four CSG were collected for each image. One hundred receivers were put at each
side. For each CSG, only receivers at the same side with the source recorded data. A
Ricker wavelet with a unit intensity at 600 nm wavelength light was used.
We investigated four scenarios with different conductivities in the forward and backward simulations:

Figure 4.1: RTM images of a point diffractor

(a) Forward: = 0S/m, Backward: = 0S/m- This was the lossless medium case.
(b)Forward: = 0.2S/m, Backward: = 0.2S/m - Both the forward and backward
simulations included normal losses in the media in this case.
(c)Forward: = 0.2S/m, Backward: = 0S/m- In this case, only the forward
simulation included normal losses while the backward simulation didnt include losses
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CHAPTER 4. REVERSE-TIME MIGRATION IN LOSSY MEDIA

(i.e., lossless).
(d)Forward: = 0.2S/m, Backward: = 0.2S/m-The forward simulation included
normal losses while the backward simulation included inverted losses (i.e., gain) to compensate the loss effect. This case (d) is the inverted-loss medium model. The simulation
results were shown in Fig. 4.1
The results showed that In case (a) with the lossless medium, the forward and backward wavefields had equal intensities at the point diffractor location and thus their
cross-correlation produced sharp and intensive peak. The full-width-at-half-maximum
(FWHM) resolution and maximum intensity were and, respectively.
In case (b), because the backward simulation included normal losses, the intensity
of the backward wavefields were drastically less than that of the forward ones due to
more losses induced by longer paths. Their cross-correlation was dominated by forward
wavefields with some modications of backward wavefields. Since the forward wavefields
were broad spherical wavefields, the RTM image presented a very broad peak with side
lobes. At the diffractor location, there was a small pit which indicated the presence of
the diffractor.
In case (c) with no losses in the backward simulation, albeit the intensity of the
backward wavefields were still less than that of the forward one due to losses induced by
the traveling from the diffractor to the receivers, the cross-correlated image could produce
a sharp peak with a broader width and a weaker intensity.
In case (d) with the inverted-loss medium, because of the loss compensation, the
intensity of the backward wavefields were boosted back to the levels of the forward ones
at the diffractor location. The cross-correlated image was nearly identical with that of the
lossless case. The resolution was and the maximum intensity is which was slight smaller
than 10 of the lossless one (this discrepancy might be due to computer computation error
or temporary wavefield storage error). Therefore, these simulation results demonstrated
that the inverted-loss medium method can fulll the time reversal invariance of Maxwells
equations. With this method, the time reversal operation can run in the lossy media as
if the media are lossless.
SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

10

Chapter 5

Low-wavenumber artifacts in RTM

In RTM, the cross-correlation imaging condition is applied under the assumption

that the source and receiver wavefields represent the downgoing and upgoing wavefields,
respectively. However, because the nite-difference solutions to the two-way wave equation in RTM can generate both upgoing and down- going waves in the extrapolation
process, either the source or receiver wavefield includes both the downgoing and upgoing
wavefields in RTM. This results in a type of unwanted energy away from the reecting interfaces, named low-wavenumber artifact (LWA). This artifact will be particularly serious
for structures with large impedance contrasts or complex structures where the wavefields
cannot be separated efficiently.
To suppress this artifact, many methods have been investigated and they can be
probably classied into three categories: wavefield-propagation approaches in which the
wave equation is modied to attenuate reections at the boundaries, imaging condition
approaches in which only the energy created by reections is kept in the nal image, and postimaging condition approaches in which the artifacts are ltered after imaging. For example,
the methods include high-pass ltering, illumination normalization, ratio of the receiver
wavefield to the source wavefield, modeling smoothing, wavefield decomposition, leastsquares attenuation, shifted-time imaging condition and so on . Among these methods,
high-pass ltering and illumination compensation are relatively easy to implement. Highpass ltering is to apply a high boost lter to the data, such as rst-order derivative or
spatially convolving a nite-difference approximation to the Laplacian operator to the raw
RTM image. Also ,the artifact might be reduced by normalizing the cross-correlation by
11

CHAPTER 5. LOW-WAVENUMBER ARTIFACTS IN RTM

the source or receiver illumination (illumination normalization) for each shot. In addition,
the ratio of the receiver wavefield to the source wavefield (ratio method) might serve as
an effective imaging condition to suppress the artifact as well.
In this manuscript, we proposed new methods for LWA suppression and compared their
effectiveness with existing methods such as Laplacian ltering, illumination normalization,
and the ratio method. The equations of all these methods are listed below as different
method cases
Case 1. Original Claerbout cross-correlation method:

Im(z, x) =

S(t, z, x)R(t, z, x)

(5.1)

Case 2. Source illumination normalization method:

P

Ims(z, x) =

S(t, z, x)R(t, z, x)
P 2
S (t, z, x)

(5.2)

Case 3. Receiver illumination normalization method:

P

Imr(z, x) =

S(t, z, x)R(t, z, x)
P 2
R (t, z, x)

(5.3)

Case 4.combined source and receiver illumination normalization:

P

Imrs(z, x) = P

S(t, z, x)R(t, z, x)
+ R2 (t, z, x)

S 2 (t, z, x)

(5.4)

Case 5. Original ratio method: ratio of the receiver wavefield to the source wavefield:
P

Imratio(z, x) = P

R(t, z, x)
S(t, z, x)

(5.5)

Case6.Square ratio method:square of ratio of the receiver wavefield to the source wavefield:
P

Imratio2(z, x) = P

SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

R2 (t, z, x)
S 2 (t, z, x)

(5.6)

12

CHAPTER 5. LOW-WAVENUMBER ARTIFACTS IN RTM

Case 7. Square root ratio method: square root of ratio of the receiver wavefield to the
source wavefield:
P

Imratio0.5(z, x) = P

R( 0.5)(t, z, x)
S ( 0.5)(t, z, x)

(5.7)

For RTM images in the following results section, cases 8 to 11 are Laplacians of cases
1to4 respectively ,and cases 12to14 are rst-order derivatives of cases 5to7 respectively
.Basically, cases 8 to 14 are derivative image methods. The new methods we proposed are
case 4(the normalization of both source and receiver illuminations method), cases 6 to 7
(square ratio method and square root ratio method), and cases 12 to 14 (derivatives of the
ratio methods), which have not been tested yet. Further-more we proposed another new
imaging method named power image method, which takes the square of the derivativemethod images (i.e., square of case 8 to 14) to form images. Our results suggest that
the power image method may offer images with best quality .In the following sections
,we built several different phantom structural models and examined performance of these
LWA suppression methods for reconstructing the phantom structural images using RTM
.Dimensions of the phantom structures are not real and they are only used for illustrative
purposes of the RTM algorithm and the LWA suppression methods. Our RTM imaging
workow in this manuscript is illustrated in Fig. 4.1.

SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

13

Chapter 6

Results and analysis

6.1

Ring structural model

To illustrate the LWA and the effectiveness of the above different suppression methods, we
rst compared the RTM images using method cases 1 to 14 and the power image method
with a ring structural model since the ring structure provides a symmetrical structure with
reections from all dipping angles. Fig. 6.1showed normalized reconstructed RTM images
of a ring structural model at different cases with different LWA- suppression methods.
The ring structural model is with 9m -diameter and 1 m -thickness, located at and .
Twenty-one sources at 1.5 m -spacing and 301 receivers at 0.1 m -spacing were located on
the top surface. The power images of cases 8to14 were shown in Fig.6.1(c).
Fig.6.1 illustrates that (1) for all cases, due to limitations of the illumination aperture
and available receivers, the signals at the sides and the bottoms of the reconstructed
ring images were typically apparently weaker than those at the tops; (2) for cases 1 to
7 without derivative operations in Fig. 6.1(a), there were severe LWAs (e.g., fan-shaped
LWAs between the measurement surface and the ring structure, and LWAs around and
inside the ring);(3)for cases 8to14 with derivative operations in Fig.6.1(b), LWAs were
signicantly reduced. But image contrasts are relatively low; (4) nally, Fig. 6.1(c) suggests
that the power images may offer cleaner and clearer structural images than cases 8 to 14
in Fig. 6.1(b). It appears that the case 14 offers best image quality and best resolutions
for the ring structure .Hence ,it suggests that the power images can serve as the nal RTM

14

CHAPTER 6. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

Figure 6.1: Normalised reconstructed RTM images of a ring structural model

SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

15

CHAPTER 6. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

images with the best image quality for structure identication.

6.2

DNA Phantom Model

Figure 6.2: Normalised reconstructed RTM images of a DNA structural model

Fig. 6.2 showed normalized reconstructed RTM images of a DNA phantom model
which represents a relatively simple biomedical structure. Twenty-three sources at 10m
-spacing and 221 receivers at 1 m -spacing were located on the top surface. Like the
ring model, there were severe LWAs in cases 1 to 7 without derivative operations in Fig.
6.2(a) and these artifacts were signicantly reduced with derivative suppression methods
in Fig. 6.2(b). However, the image contrasts in Fig. 6.2(b) were relatively low. Results
SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

16

CHAPTER 6. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

indicate that the power images in Fig. 6.2(c) offer the best DNA structural images with
best image quality. Fig. 6.2suggests that the power (Fig. 6.2(c)) image of case 9 might
be sufcient for this type of relatively simple structure identication.

6.3

Brain Phantom Model

Figure 6.3: Normalised reconstructed RTM images of a Brain structural model

Fig. 6.3 showed normalized reconstructed RTM images of a brain phantom model
which represents a relatively complex biomedical structure.Thirty-three sources at 10 m
spacing and 321 receivers at 1 m -spacing were located on the top surface. Similarly, there
were severe LWA effects in cases 1 to7 without derivative operations in Fig.6.3(a)and these
SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

17

CHAPTER 6. RESULTS AND ANALYSIS

artifacts were signicantly reduced with derivative suppression methods in Fig. 6.3(b).
Image contrasts in Fig. 6.3(b) were low. Results illustrated that the power images in Fig.
6.3(c) offer the best brain structural images with best image quality. For this relatively
complex structure, deeper parts of most power (Fig. 6.3(c)) images were signicantly
attenuated, leading to lack of structural information in deeper layers. It appears that
the power image of case 10 offers the clearest brain structural images with best image
contrasts .It suggests that forth is or other relatively complex structure, the power image
of case 10 might be sufcient for this type of complex structure identication. For some
cases in medical applications, it might be feasible to capture images from two sides of
objects (e.g., from left and right sides of a human breast). Hence, we could put sources
and receivers on both sides to acquire more data to reconstruct the RTM images.

SCT College of Engineering, Thiruvananthapuram

18

Chapter 7

Conclusion

In summary, this paper has presented a new optical RTM imaging technique that
provides a novel image reconstruction algorithm for optical tomography. We also developed new methods for LWA suppression in RTM for obtaining high-quality structural
images with high contrast and spatial resolutions. Since the choice of artifact suppression
methods is dependent on the target structure, it would be better for us to have more methods to select for obtainment of RTM images with the best quality. While the present work
demonstrates the feasibility of this technique in two-dimensional homogenous lossy media, further studies are being conducted for three-dimensional heterogeneous lossy media,
which can be used for image reconstructions in turbid media such as biological tissues.
Our results show that RTM is a powerful image algorithm which can be employed for
optical imaging of complex structures using the FDTD method. The RTM imaging technique is compatible with conventional OT conguration schemes probably with ultrafast
lasers and advanced acquisition devices. The optical RTM imaging technique may potentially provide a new strategy for improved image reconstruction in optical tomography
for biomedical applications.

19

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[2] A. S. K. Dzik-Jurasz, Molecular imaging in vivo: An introduction, Br. J. Radiol.,
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[3] D.A.Boasetal.,Imaging the body with diffuse optical tomography, IEEE Signal Process. Mag., vol. 18, no. 6, pp. 5775, Nov. 2001
[4] A.G.Yodh and D.A.Boas,Functional imaging with diffusing light, in Biomedical
Photonics Handbook. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2003, pp. 2145.
[5] H.Jiang,Diffuse OpticalTomography:Principles and Applications. Boca Raton, FL:
CRC Press, 2010.

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