title: Towards multi-directional OCT for speckle noise reduction.
abstract: Multi-directional optical coherence tomography (MD-OCT) applies and extends the concept of angular compounding for speckle noise reduction to the area of OCT imaging. OCT images are acquired from a wide range of angles of view. Averaging of the rotated images therefore requires compensation of the parallax which is achieved by simple image registration for image reconstruction. Test measurements of a sample structure in a low and highly scattering environment show that the method improves the signal-to-noise ratio by a factor of 4 and hence reduces speckle noise significantly. Experimental results also show that the proposed averaging increases the performance of common edge-detection algorithms.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Robotics and Cognitive Systems, University of Luebeck, Germany. ramrath@rob.uni-luebeck.de
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ramrath
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Moreno
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mueller
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Bonin
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Huettmann
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Schweikard
mesh_terms: D000465:Algorithms; D016477:Artifacts; D007089:Image Enhancement / Q000379:methods*; D007090:Image Interpretation, Computer-Assisted / Q000379:methods*; D021621:Imaging, Three-Dimensional / Q000379:methods*; D008853:Microscopy / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*; D019047:Phantoms, Imaging; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D041623:Tomography, Optical Coherence / Q000295:instrumentation / Q000379:methods*