FlatCam: Thin, Bare-Sensor Cameras using Coded Aperture and Computation

TL;DR

FlatCam introduces a thin, lensless camera design using a coded mask close to the sensor, enabling a compact form factor with computational image reconstruction demonstrated at visible and infrared wavelengths.

Contribution

The paper presents a novel flat, lensless camera architecture with a coded mask near the sensor, allowing for a thin form factor and scalable image reconstruction.

Findings

Prototypes at visible and infrared wavelengths validate the design.

Coded mask enables computational imaging in a thin form factor.

Scalable calibration and reconstruction due to separable mask design.

Abstract

FlatCam is a thin form-factor lensless camera that consists of a coded mask placed on top of a bare, conventional sensor array. Unlike a traditional, lens-based camera where an image of the scene is directly recorded on the sensor pixels, each pixel in FlatCam records a linear combination of light from multiple scene elements. A computational algorithm is then used to demultiplex the recorded measurements and reconstruct an image of the scene. FlatCam is an instance of a coded aperture imaging system; however, unlike the vast majority of related work, we place the coded mask extremely close to the image sensor that can enable a thin system. We employ a separable mask to ensure that both calibration and image reconstruction are scalable in terms of memory requirements and computational complexity. We demonstrate the potential of the FlatCam design using two prototypes: one at visible wavelengths and one at infrared wavelengths.