Discrete event distribution sampling apparatus and methods

Abstract

Locations of the origins of 'discrete events,' e.g., photons or other units of radiant energy are acquired from a specimen with reference to a scan frame or other region of interest of the specimen. The location of origin of a discrete event can be determined from the corresponding location datum as derived from a scan-drive signal, a positional feed-back signal, or by a point in time during a unit of sampling time ('image-acquisition period') at which the event is detected. A probability-density function (PDF) is associated with the detected locations. Summing or other processing of the PDFs is performed to produce imagable data. From the data, images can be produced that require fewer discrete events to converge to an ideal density distribution associated with an image feature than required by pixel-based binning methods. Stored data can be mapped into pixels or voxels of a display or otherwise processed, including post hoc processing.