Lensless Imaging

Abstract
The present signal processing technology finds one of its main
applications in the field of computational imaging and displays.
Lensless imaging is the product of such newly emerging
technologies, which essentially involves coding of the object onto its
unique shadow, and then recovering the image by a computational
algorithm.
Highlighting the concept of lensless imaging and its applications is
the primary objective of the seminar. The importance of the
principles of optics and mathematics in analysing the technology is
also demonstrated. The computational algorithm involved in the
process of reconstructing the image from the coded shadow, and its
programming in MATLAB is also dealt with. To understand how the
whole mechanism happens in hardware, a case study on FlatCam, a
lensless camera designed by a group of researchers at the Rice
University, is planned.
Keywords : Lensless Imaging, Computational Photography, FlatCam

- Aditya Kumar, B130566EE, A1 Batch

Base Papers :
[1] Vivek Boominathan, Jesse K. Adams, M. Salman Asif, Benjamin W.
Avants, Jacob T. Robinson, Richard G. Baraniuk, Aswin C.
Sankaranarayanan, and Ashok Veeraraghavan, Lensless Imaging - A
computational renaissance", IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, Issue
5, Sept. 2016, Page(s) : 23 35
[2] Richard G. Baraniuk, Compressive Sensing [Lecture Notes]",
IEEE Signal Processing Magazine, Issue 4, July 2007, Page(s) : 118
121
[3] David G. Stork and Patrick R. Gill, Optical, Mathematical, and
Computational Foundations of Lensless Ultra-Miniature Diffractive
Imagers and Sensors", International Journal on Advances in Systems
and Measurements, vol. 7 no. 3 & 4, 2014

Questions :
1. Transmittances controllable in space and time? How do we
move the opening w.r.t. the moving object to capture the
image?
[Aparna P R, B130750EE]
A feedback system is required, which would detect the moving
object, and then control the transmittance of the aperture by
applying suitable voltages and hence track the object.
2. If the surfaces are made up of CMOS and other transistors, how
will you overcome optical image instability?
[Abhishek Sahoo, B130689EE]
There are electronic image stabilization techniques, which
reduce blurring associated with the motion of a camera or
other imaging device during exposure.
3. Can you just briefly detail Basis pursuit algorithm?
[Arlene John, B130146EE]
It is basically a linear programming problem which the
algorithm tries to solve when reconstructing the image. It can
also be seen as a minimization of error in L1 space. The
algorithm seeks the basis with respect to which the given
signal is sparse.
4. Why cant we use SONAR or heat-sensing instead of this
complex method?
[Amala Sree Hari, B130294EE]
The problem is SONAR is a sound wave, and hence not
applicable in space. As for heat sensing cameras, the lenses
they use need to be made of costly materials like germanium,
and the fact that it uses lenses restricts its domain of
applications. But lensless cameras are cheap and small in size,
making them versatile.
5. You talked about superposition of images using many masks,
which allow a particular colour. How many such masks will be
used for maximum efficiency? (since each colour has a
particular wavelength and we might need so many masks)
[Adithyan R, B130419EE]
It depends on the sensors you have behind the masks. If they
are capable of distinguishing between many colours and you

are willing to make such a sensor array, then many masks can
be used. The problem with many masks is that the camera size
will increase.
6. What are the current research happening regarding lensless
imaging techniques?
[Arjun Narayanan, B130410EE]
As I talked about in my seminar, a group of researchers at Rice
University, Texas developed a lensless camera, FlatCam in
their lab. The images reconstructed are not very clear, and will
require further image processing. The major challenges they
are facing are the trade-off between the size and resolution of
the camera, the computation burden and the need for a
different architecture for masks. Research is also going on in
modelling this camera with maximum accuracy, so that the
algorithm does not miss any vital feature.