INFLUENCE OF BOUNDARIES ON THE IMAGING OF OBJECTS IN TURBID MEDIA

To image objects that are present in a random medium, one needs to kno w how sensitive measurements are to different kinds of objects and to the position of those objects. Within the diffusion theory we generali ze expressions that describe the sensitivity to extra scattering and e xtra absorption. The sensitivity is influenced by the geometry and by the boundaries of the medium. We describe how sources and detectors at different boundaries have to be handled theoretically. We then compar e an unbounded medium, a medium having a black boundary, and a medium having a mirror as a boundary and study the differences in sensitivity . Our results are confirmed by experiments. (C) 1998 Optical Society o f America.