US 20040021771A1
(19) United States
(12) Patent Application Publication (io) Pub. No.: US 2004/0021771 Al
Stearns et al. (43) Pub. Date: Feb. 5,2004
(54) METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR 3-D
IMAGING OF INTERNAL LIGHT SOURCES
(75) Inventors: Daniel G. Stearns, Mountain View, CA (US); Bradley W. Rice, Danville, CA (US); Michael D. Cable, Danville, CA (US)
Correspondence Address:
BEYER WEAVER & THOMAS LLP
P.O. BOX 778
BERKELEY, CA 94704-0778 (US) (73) Assignee: Xenogen Corporation
(21) Appl. No.: 10/606,976
(22) Filed: Jun. 25, 2003
Related U.S. Application Data
(60) Provisional application No. 60/395,357, filed on Jul. 16, 2002. Provisional application No. 60/396,458,
The present invention provides systems and methods for obtaining a three-dimensional (3D) representation of one or more light sources inside a sample, such as a mammal. Mammalian tissue is a turbid medium, meaning that photons are both absorbed and scattered as they propagate through tissue. In the case where scattering is large compared with absorption, such as red to near-infrared light passing through tissue, the transport of light within the sample is described by diffusion theory. Using imaging data and computerimplemented photon diffusion models, embodiments of the present invention produce a 3D representation of the light sources inside a sample, such as a 3D location, size, and brightness of such light sources.
convert surface light emission data to light |^506 internal to the sample surface
