High spatial resolution diffuse optical tomography with directional information

Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) is a promising method for imaging through densely scattering media such as the human tissue and skull. DOT has various biomedical applications in functional brain imaging and breast cancer detection with the advantages of being portable, inexpensive, and noninvasive. However, achieving high spatial resolution remains a challenge in traditional DOT setups. In this work, we propose a multi-directional DOT (MD-DOT) approach that utilizes the directional information of detected photons to enhance spatial resolution. Using Monte Carlo-based simulations with a complete DOT reconstruction pipeline, we demonstrate that incorporating directional information significantly improves spatial resolution to the mm scale. Overall, this work shows promising improvements in DOT-related medical imaging applications where precision is critical, such as early detection of small tumors.