I have to admit that when I first heard about terms such as optical lasers and optical sensors I though I knew what is was but I didn’t think that much about it. It wasn’t until recently where I was asked if I could explain what is was that I found out that I really couldn’t. I knew that it had something to do with light and using it for different purposes but that was about it. So just at with anything else I find to know nothing about I had to go look it up and what better place to start than Wikipedia.
To my big surprise Wikipedia didn’t have any articles on that topic at all but guided me to similar topics such as fiber lasers, optical fiber and doped fiber amplifiers. So that merely let me to three new words that I couldn’t explain. Go figure.
Instead I wanted to see if they had anything on optical imaging. Luckily they did and instead of trying to explain it I would rather reference what they state:
Optical imaging is an imaging technique (also known as molecular imaging) that involves inference from the deflection of light emitted from a laser or infrared source to anatomic or chemical properties of material (e.g. cell tissue). Optical imaging systems may be divided into diffusive and ballistic imaging systems. Read more here.
Hmm… that made a little sense but I’m still not confident that I can explain what it really is. I think the best approach to figuring this out will be to go to the library and ask for books about optical instruments and laser technology. I will probably need to start with books that can explain the basics before I go on to the more advances stuff 