skip to main content
article

Programmable Imaging: Towards a Flexible Camera

Published: 01 October 2006 Publication History

Abstract

In this paper, we introduce the notion of a programmable imaging system. Such an imaging system provides a human user or a vision system significant control over the radiometric and geometric characteristics of the system. This flexibility is achieved using a programmable array of micro-mirrors. The orientations of the mirrors of the array can be controlled with high precision over space and time. This enables the system to select and modulate rays from the scene's light field based on the needs of the application at hand.
We have implemented a programmable imaging system that uses a digital micro-mirror device (DMD), which is used in digital light processing. Although the mirrors of this device can only be positioned in one of two states, we show that our system can be used to implement a wide variety of imaging functions, including, high dynamic range imaging, feature detection, and object recognition. We also describe how a micro-mirror array that allows full control over the orientations of its mirrors can be used to instantly change the field of view and resolution characteristics of the imaging system. We conclude with a discussion on the implications of programmable imaging for computer vision.

References

[1]
Castracane, J. and Gutin, M. A. 1999. DMD-based bloom control for intensified imaging systems. In Diffractive and Holographic Tech., Syst., and Spatial Light Modulators VI, vol. 3633, pp. 234-242. SPIE.
[2]
Christensen, M.P., Euliss, G.W., McFadden, M.J., Coyle, K.M., Milojkovic, P., Haney, M.W., Gracht, J. van der, and Athale, R. A. October 2002. Active-eyes: An adaptive pixel-by-pixel image-segmentation sensor architecture for high-dynamic-range hyperspectral imaging. Applied Optics, 41(29):6093- 6103.
[3]
Dudley, D., Duncan, W., and Slaughter, J. February 2003. Emerging digital micromirror device (DMD) applications. White paper, Texas Instruments.
[4]
Ginosar, R., Hilsenrath, O., and Zeevi, Y. September 1992. Wide dynamic range camera. U.S. Patent 5, 144,442.
[5]
Goodman, J. W. 1968. Introduction to Fourier Optics. McGraw-Hill, New York.
[6]
Grossberg, M.D. and Nayar, S.K. 2005. The raxel imaging model and ray-based calibration. IJCV, 61 (2): 119-137.
[7]
Hicks, R. A. 2003. Personal Communication.
[8]
Hornbeck, L.J. 1988. Bistable deformable mirror device. In Spat. Light Mod. and Apps., vol. 8. OSA.
[9]
Hornbeck, L.J. August 1989. Deformable-mirror spatial light modulators. In Projection Displays III, vol. 1150, pp. 86-102. SPIE.
[10]
Hornbeck, L.J. 1995. Projection displays and MEMS: Timely convergence for a bright future. In Micromachined Devices and Components, vol. 2642. SPIE.
[11]
Kang, S.B., Uyttendaele, M., Winder, S., and Szeliski, R. 2003. High dynamic range video.ACM Trans. on Graph. (Proc. of SIGGRAPH 2003), 22(3):319-325.
[12]
Kearney, K.J. and Ninkov, Z. 1998. Characterization of digital micromirror device for use as an optical mask in imaging and spectroscopy. Spatial Light Modulators, 3292:81-92. SPIE.
[13]
Malbet, F., Yu, J., and Shao, M. 1995. High dynamic range imaging using a deformable mirror for space coronography. Public. of the Astro. Soc. of the Pacific, 107:386.
[14]
Murase, H. and Nayar, S.K. 1995. Visual learning and recognition of 3d objects from appearance. IJCV, 14(1):5-24.
[15]
Nayar, S.K. and Branzoi, V. 2003. Adaptive Dynamic Range Imaging: Optical Control of Pixel Exposures over Space and Time. Proc. of Inter. Conf. on Computer Vision (ICCV), pp. 1168- 1175.
[16]
Nayar, S.K. and Mitsunaga, T. 2000. High dynamic range imaging: Spatially varying pixel exposures. Proc. of IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, vol. 1:472- 479.
[17]
Nayar, S.K. and Narasimhan, S.G. 2002. Assorted pixels: Multisampled imaging with structural models. Proc. of Euro. Conf. on Comp. Vis. (ECCV), 4:636-152.
[18]
Smith, W.J. 1966. Modern Optical Engineering. McGraw-Hill.
[19]
Turk, M. and Pentland, A.P. 1991. Face recognition using eigenfaces. In Proc. of IEEE Conf. on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), pp. 586-591.
[20]
Tyson, R.K. 1998. Principles of Adaptive Optics. Academic Press.

Cited By

View all

Recommendations

Comments

Information & Contributors

Information

Published In

cover image International Journal of Computer Vision
International Journal of Computer Vision  Volume 70, Issue 1
October 2006
99 pages

Publisher

Kluwer Academic Publishers

United States

Publication History

Published: 01 October 2006

Author Tags

  1. MEMS
  2. adaptive optics
  3. catadioptric imaging
  4. digital micro-mirror device
  5. feature detection
  6. field of view
  7. flexible imaging
  8. high dynamic range imaging
  9. micro-mirror array
  10. multi-viewpoint imaging
  11. object recognition
  12. optical processing
  13. programmable imaging
  14. purposive camera
  15. resolution
  16. stereo
  17. wide-angle imaging

Qualifiers

  • Article

Contributors

Other Metrics

Bibliometrics & Citations

Bibliometrics

Article Metrics

  • Downloads (Last 12 months)0
  • Downloads (Last 6 weeks)0
Reflects downloads up to 17 Jan 2025

Other Metrics

Citations

Cited By

View all

View Options

View options

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Share this Publication link

Share on social media