Diffuse optical tomography based on multiple access coding

•We proposed a multiple access code method which is used to encode the sources in DOT.•All sources can be illuminated simultaneously in DOT.•The mixed signals will be decoded in receive terminal of the data acquisition.•The temporal resolution is highly improved in the data acquisition stage.

Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) has the advantages of being a non-invasive, non-radiation emitting and low-cost biological tissue imaging method, and many recent studies have employed this technology. By improving the spatial resolution and developing a new method for constantly improving the flexibility of the experimental device, the system can perform data acquisition rapidly and conveniently. We propose a method for rapid data acquisition based on multiple access coding; it can acquire data in parallel, and the system can greatly improve the temporal resolution of the data acquisition step in diffuse optical tomography thereafter. We simulate the encoding and decoding process of the source–detector pair and successfully isolate the source signal from mixed signals. The DOT image reconstruction highlight the effectiveness of the system.