NSF Award
9461664
This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project proposes to investigate a new imaging technique which involves dynamic control of the tilt of the camera sensor plane. The proposed effort will investigate algorithms using this geometry with two objectives. The first objective is to acquire the range map of a scene. This is useful to construct geometric models of objects, which are in turn useful for navigation, recognition and manipulation. Second, the imaging technique delivers a focused photograph of multiple objects. This is useful for photography because a larger part of the scene can be included in the foreground than possible with normal cameras. Traditionally, range sensing requires the use of an energy scan, such as using laser and range measurement from returned energy. Both of these methods involve special purpose illumination of the scene. The proposed work is aimed at fast acquisition of geometric models in natural lighting. Imaging of surfaces that have large variations in depth are not traditionally possible, so the proposed work has the potential of introducing new photographic capabilities. The proposed imaging geometry and algorithms exploit optics of image formation in place of mechanical control to achieve both objectives simultaneously.
