First-Photon Imaging

Kirmani, Ahmed; Venkatraman, Dheera; Shin, Dongeek; Colaço, Andrea; Wong, Franco N. C.; Shapiro, Jeffrey H.; Goyal, Vivek K

doi:10.1126/science.1246775

Cited by 387 publications

(260 citation statements)

References 26 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

252

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…By detecting this signal with a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) camera, we follow the movement of an object located a meter away from the camera with centimetre precision. We discuss the possibility of applying this technology to a variety of real-life situations in the 1 near future.Recent years have seen remarkable advances in the field of image processing and data acquisition, allowing for a range of novel applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. An exciting new avenue is using optical imaging techniques to observe and track objects that are both in movement and hidden from the direct line-of-sight.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection and tracking of moving objects hidden from view

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The ability to detect motion and track a moving object hidden around a corner or behind a wall provides a crucial advantage when physically going around the obstacle is impossible or dangerous. Previous methods have demonstrated that is possible to reconstruct the shape of an object hidden from view. However, these methods do not enable the tracking of movement in real-time. We demonstrate a compact non-line-of-sight laser ranging technology that relies upon the ability to send light around an obstacle using a scattering floor and to detect the return signal from a hidden object with only a few seconds acquisition time. By detecting this signal with a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) camera, we follow the movement of an object located a meter away from the camera with centimetre precision. We discuss the possibility of applying this technology to a variety of real-life situations in the 1 near future.Recent years have seen remarkable advances in the field of image processing and data acquisition, allowing for a range of novel applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]. An exciting new avenue is using optical imaging techniques to observe and track objects that are both in movement and hidden from the direct line-of-sight. The ability to detect motion and track a moving object hidden from view would provide a crucial advantage when physically going around the obstacle is impossible or dangerous, for example to detect a person moving behind a wall or a car approaching from behind a blind corner.Techniques for imaging static objects that are hidden from view have been recently demonstrated relying on, for example, radar technology [9,10], variations of laser illuminated detection and ranging (LIDAR) [3,5,11,12], or speckle-based imaging. The latter approach was first developed for imaging through opaque barriers [13][14][15], and also allows for imaging around corners [16,17]. The work of Velten et al. [5] and, more recently, Buttafava et al. [8] sets out to establish the 3D shape of a static hidden object by collecting the return scattered light with a streak camera or single-photon avalanche diode, respectively. While remarkable 3D reconstruction of objects are achieved with these techniques, Buttafava et al. point out that the requirement for scanning and subsequent long acquisition times mean that their technique is currently unsuitable for imaging moving objects.Notwithstanding these ingenious imaging systems, locating the position of a hidden object in motion and monitoring its movement in real time remains to date a major challenge. We set out to solve the tracking problem and develop a technique based on both hardware and software implementations that are specifically designed for this 2 purpose. Our solution is based on a LIDAR-like approach where a single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) camera [7,[18][19][20][21][22] is used to image light that is backscattered from beyond the direct line-of-sight (see Methods for camera details). The high temporal resolution of the camera relies on the fact that each indiv...

show abstract

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Detection and tracking of moving objects hidden from view

et al. 2015

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…This is not a low number of photons per pixel comparable to recent works in which deconvolution is not needed, [14][15][16][17] but the results suggest that it is low enough that our explicit Poissonian modeling of observed photon counts improves performance. The flattened photon data cube f (Y) ∈ N nxny×nt is illustrated in image form in Fig.…”

Section: Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 46%

“…[15][16][17] One core assumption behind these existing lowlight depth imaging frameworks is that the spatial spot size of the illumination is small enough that we can assume that each pixel measurement has addressed a different scene patch. However, in practice, this independent-pixel assumption can break down due to non-idealities in the illumination source and imaging conditions.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Photon-efficient super-resolution laser radar

Shin

Shapiro

Goyal

2017

Wavelets and Sparsity XVII

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The resolution achieved in photon-efficient active optical range imaging systems can be low due to non-idealities such as propagation through a diffuse scattering medium. We propose a constrained optimization-based framework to address extremes in scarcity of photons and blurring by a forward imaging kernel. We provide two algorithms for the resulting inverse problem: a greedy algorithm, inspired by sparse pursuit algorithms; and a convex optimization heuristic that incorporates image total variation regularization. We demonstrate that our framework outperforms existing deconvolution imaging techniques in terms of peak signal-to-noise ratio. Since our proposed method is able to super-resolve depth features using small numbers of photon counts, it can be useful for observing fine-scale phenomena in remote sensing through a scattering medium and through-the-skin biomedical imaging applications.

show abstract

“…Although 3D imaging systems have been studied, they are usually realized either as single pixel detectors [1][2][3][4] or as bench-top systems with simple detector arrays [5][6][7]. Silicon nanophotonic processes use similar steps as their electronic counterparts, leading to higher yields, and compatibility with electronic integrated circuits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Nanophotonic coherent imager

Aflatouni¹,

Abiri²,

Rekhi³

et al. 2015

Opt. Express

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract:An integrated silicon nanophotonic coherent imager (NCI), with a 4 × 4 array of coherent pixels is reported. In the proposed NCI, on-chip optical processing determines the intensity and depth of each point on the imaged object based on the instantaneous phase and amplitude of the optical wave incident on each pixel. The NCI operates based on a modified time-domain frequency modulated continuous wave (FMCW) ranging scheme, where concurrent time-domain measurements of both period and the zero-crossing time of each electrical output of the nanophotonic chip allows the NCI to overcome the traditional resolution limits of frequency domain detection. The detection of both intensity and relative delay enables applications such as high-resolution 3D reflective and transmissive imaging as well as index contrast imaging. We demonstrate 3D imaging with 15µm depth resolution and 50µm lateral resolution (limited by the pixel spacing) at up to 0.5-meter range. The reported NCI is also capable of detecting a 1% equivalent refractive index contrast at 1mm thickness. 195-199 (2013

show abstract

First-Photon Imaging

Cited by 387 publications

References 26 publications

Detection and tracking of moving objects hidden from view

Detection and tracking of moving objects hidden from view

Photon-efficient super-resolution laser radar

Nanophotonic coherent imager

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About