Real-time processing of spectroscopic optical coherence tomography

Spectroscopic OCT improves upon the conventional OCT system by processing the entire detected interference signal and extracting spectral information. We implement it as a real-time process using FPGA/DSP based processing hardware. We propose an algorithm based on the Morlet wavelet transform that can be approximated using our existing OCT system and hardware. The spectral information that can be obtained by this system allows for better distinguishing of scattering properties when imaging biological tissue. We also present some of our experimental results to demonstrate the concept. The processing speed achieved by our system allows image generation at approximately the same rate as data acquisition.