Abstract: Depth information about a scene of interest is acquired by illuminating the scene, capturing reflected light energy from the scene with one or more photodetectors, and processing resulting signals, in at least one embodiment, a pseudo-randomly generated series of spatial light modulation patterns is used to modulate the light pulses either before or after reflection.

Abstract: Diffuse image measurement system and digital image formation method. The system includes a source of light with time-varying intensity directed at a scene to be imaged. A time-resolved light meter is provided for receiving light reflected from the scene to generate time-resolved samples of the intensity of light incident at the light meter. The temporal variation in the intensity of light incident at the light meter is associated with a function of a radiometric property of the scene, such as a linear functional of reflectance, and a computer processes the samples to construct a digital image. The spatial resolution of the digital image is finer than the spatial support of the illumination on the scene and finer than the spatial support of the sensitivity of the light meter. Using appropriate light sources instead of impulsive illumination significantly improves signal-to-noise ratio and reconstruction quality.

Abstract: In illustrative implementations of this invention, multi-path analysis of transient illumination is used to reconstruct scene geometry, even of objects that are occluded from the camera. An ultrafast camera system is used. It comprises a photo-sensor (e.g., accurate in the picosecond range), a pulsed illumination source (e.g. a femtosecond laser) and a processor. The camera emits a very brief light pulse that strikes a surface and bounces. Depending on the path taken, part of the light may return to the camera after one, two, three or more bounces. The photo-sensor captures the returning light bounces in a three-dimensional time image I(x,y,t) for each pixel. The camera takes different angular samples from the same viewpoint, recording a five-dimensional STIR (Space Time Impulse Response). A processor analyzes onset information in the STIR to estimate pairwise distances between patches in the scene, and then employs isometric embedding to estimate patch coordinates.

Abstract: Provided are an apparatus and method for processing a light field image that is acquired and processed using a mask to spatially modulate a light field. The apparatus includes a lens, a mask to spatially modulate 4D light field data of a scene passing through the lens to include wideband information on the scene, a sensor to detect a 2D image corresponding to the spatially modulated 4D light field data, and a data processing unit to recover the 4D light field data from the 2D image to generate an all-in-focus image.