1. A speckle contrast optical tomography system comprising: a plurality of point sources each adapted to generate light, each of the plurality of point sources located at a respective first location over a sample to be examined; a plurality of detectors located at respective second locations relative to the sample; and wherein the plurality of point sources and the plurality of detectors are arranged over a tissue volume of the sample in an arrangement that defines a plurality of source position-detector pairs adapted to examine the tissue volume; the speckle contrast optical tomography system further comprising: a processing device adapted to: determine a speckle contrast between each of the plurality of source position-detector pairs, after light transverses the tissue volume, both in the absence of flow and in the presence of flow, thereby generating speckle contrast data; correct the speckle contrast data for shot-noise error and intensity gradients; and construct a speckle contrast forward model by performing the following steps: computing a field autocorrelation for the plurality of source positions and the plurality of detectors; computing the speckle contrast for the plurality of source positions and the plurality of detectors; computing a difference value defining a relationship between the speckle contrast corrected for shot noise and intensity gradients and a baseline speckle contrast measurement value; and determining a linear system of equations having a solution that provides a flow contrast, based at least in part on the difference value.