1. A method for the tomographic reconstruction of an object which has diffracted waves of energy propagating through it, said waves of energy being selected from a group consisting of sonic and electromagnetic waves, comprising: obtaining signals which are a function of at least one of the phase and amplitude of the diffracted propagating waves after said waves have interacted with said object, wherein the sources of said energy waves are located along an arbitrary curvilinear surface, other than a single straight line and the detectors of said diffracted waves are located along an arbitrary curvilinear surface other than a single straight line; and converting said signals by means of a filtered backpropagation technique into an array representing a partial reconstruction of the object.