Imaging of a translucent object hidden in a highly scattering medium from the early portion of the diffuse component of a transmitted ultrafast laser pulse.

A translucent object hidden in a highly scattering medium is shown to be visible when the early portion of the transmitted diffuse pulse (snake photons) is detected. The use of the snake scattered photons to image objects depends on the scattering characteristics along a quasi-straight-line path that the photons traverse across the medium. A translucent object with different scattering characteristics compared with its surrounding medium will change the intensity of the snake photons. By scanning the medium across the laser beam and detecting only the snake photons, a translucent object hidden in a highly scattering medium could be located.