En-face optical coherence tomography revival

Quite recently, we introduced a novel Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) method, termed as Master Slave OCT (MS-OCT), especially to deliver en-face images. MS-OCT operates like a time domain OCT, selecting signal from a selected depth only while scanning the laser beam across the sample. Time domain OCT allows real time production of an en-face image, although relatively slowly. As a major advance, the Master Slave method allows collection of signals from any number of depths, as required by the user. MS-OCT is an OCT method that does not require resampling of data and can be used to deliver en-face images from several depths simultaneously. However, as the MS-OCT method requires important computational resources, the number of multiple depth en-face images produced in real-time is limited. Here, we demonstrate that taking advantage of the parallel processing feature of the MS-OCT technology by harnessing the capabilities of graphics processing units (GPU)s, information from 384 depth positions is acquired in one raster with real time display of 40 en-face OCT images. These exhibit comparable resolution and sensitivity to the images produced using the traditional Fourier domain based method. The GPU facilitates versatile real time selection of parameters, such as the depth positions of the 40 images out of a set of 384 depth locations, as well as their axial resolution. Here, we present in parallel with the 40 en-face OCT images of a human tooth, a confocal microscopy lookalike image, together with two B-scan OCT images along rectangular directions. © (2016) COPYRIGHT Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). Downloading of the abstract is permitted for personal use only.