<title>A new compressive imaging camera architecture using optical-domain compression</title>

TLDR

Compressive Sensing demonstrates that few linear projections of a compressible signal suffice for reconstruction, enabling new compressive imaging systems and cameras. The authors aim to develop a camera that uses a digital micromirror array to optically compute linear projections onto pseudorandom binary patterns. The architecture employs a digital micromirror array to perform optical calculations of linear projections of an image onto pseudorandom binary patterns. The resulting system can reconstruct images with a single photon detector using fewer samples than pixels, and its universality, robustness, scalability, progressivity, computational asymmetry, and compatibility with single‑photon detection enable imaging at wavelengths beyond the reach of conventional CCD and CMOS imagers.

Abstract

<i>Compressive Sensing</i> is an emerging field based on the revelation that a small number of linear projections of a compressible signal contain enough information for reconstruction and processing. It has many promising implications and enables the design of new kinds of <i>Compressive Imaging</i> systems and cameras. In this paper, we develop a new camera architecture that employs a digital micromirror array to perform optical calculations of linear projections of an image onto pseudorandom binary patterns. Its hallmarks include the ability to obtain an image with a single detection element while sampling the image fewer times than the number of pixels. Other attractive properties include its universality, robustness, scalability, progressivity, and computational asymmetry. The most intriguing feature of the system is that, since it relies on a single photon detector, it can be adapted to image at wavelengths that are currently impossible with conventional CCD and CMOS imagers.