A Lensless Polarization Camera

TL;DR

This paper introduces a compact, lensless polarization camera that captures four polarization images from a single snapshot using a diffuser and polarization mask, advancing polarization imaging technology.

Contribution

It presents a novel lensless polarization camera design with a reconstruction algorithm that explicitly models polarization-encoded measurements, enabling efficient polarization imaging.

Findings

Successfully recovers four polarization images from one snapshot

Demonstrates potential for compact, lensless polarization imaging systems

Provides insights into factors affecting reconstruction quality

Abstract

Polarization imaging is a technique that creates a pixel map of the polarization state in a scene. Although invisible to the human eye, polarization can assist various sensing and computer vision tasks. Existing polarization cameras use spatial or temporal multiplexing, which increases the camera volume, weight, cost, or all of the above. Recent lensless imaging approaches, such as DiffuserCam, have demonstrated that compact imaging systems can be realized by replacing the lens with a coding element and performing computational reconstruction. In this work, we propose a compact lensless polarization camera composed of a diffuser and a simple striped polarization mask. By combining this optical design with a reconstruction algorithm that explicitly models the polarization-encoded lensless measurements, four linear polarization images are recovered from a single snapshot. Our results demonstrate the potential of lensless approaches for polarization imaging and reveal the physical factors that govern reconstruction quality, guiding the development of high-quality practical systems.