Real time spectral imaging and mapping at video rates can have tremendous impact not only on diagnostic sciences but also on fundamental physiological problems. We report the first real-time spectral mapper based on the combination of snap-shot spectral imaging and spectral estimation algorithms. Performance evaluation revealed that six band imaging combined with the Wiener algorithm provided high estimation accuracy, with error levels lying within the experimental noise. High accuracy is accompanied with much faster, by 3 orders of magnitude, spectral mapping, as compared with scanning spectral systems. This new technology is intended to enable spectral mapping at nearly video rates in all kinds of dynamic bio-optical effects as well as in applications where the target-probe relative position is randomly and fast changing.

In this paper we present a novel snapshot spectral imager with the distinct advantage of being able to display maps representing different spectral classes in a scene in video rates. The Simultaneous capturing of spectral images through a common aperture is combined with spectral estimation algorithms for improving spectral resolution at no cost to the spatial resolution. The developed real time spectral mapper (RTSM) is validated in a pilot study as a blood oxygen saturation mapper, where its great value in studying the spatiotemporal characteristics of dynamic optical effects was clearly established.