Image formation in and through irregular media, ranging from atmospheric inhomogeneities to the very difficult case of diffusely scattering media such as human tissue, remains a major challenge of image science. The range of technology that has been brought to bear on these problems is considerable, including active adaptive optics, image deconvolution, phase retrieval and phase conjugation. The present work proposes various ideas for imaging through inhomogeneities and for imaging objects embedded within inhomogeneities. The first category, imaging through inhomogeneities, embodies extensions of a technique recently developed by the principal investigator for imaging through inhomogeneities using a superresolution technique. The goal is to extend this capability in various ways, in particular, to eliminate the need for an aberration- free path from source to the mixer, which can be accomplished by combining spatial and temporal encoding techniques. The second category is the imaging of objects embedded within the inhomogeneity. Several techniques are proposed, such as confocal scanning with the use of extremely short pulses of light.
