Optimization of data acquisition operation in optical tomography based on estimation theory.

The data acquisition process is occasionally the most time consuming and costly operation in tomography. Currently, raster scanning is still the common practice in making sequential measurements in most tomography scanners. Raster scanning is known to be slow and such scanners usually cannot catch up with the speed of changes when imaging dynamically evolving objects. In this research, we studied the possibility of using estimation theory and our prior knowledge about the sample under test to reduce the number of measurements required to achieve a given image quality. This systematic approach for optimization of the data acquisition process also provides a vision toward improving the geometry of the scanner and reducing the effect of noise, including the common state-dependent noise of detectors. The theory is developed in the article and simulations are provided to better display discussed concepts.