Researchers at Rice University in the United States have developed a new camera system called Flatcam that replaces the lenses used in traditional cameras with coded masks and algorithms.
The Flatcam camera system is similar to the lensless image sensor previously developed by Rambus, but the company's approach is to replace the traditional lens with a diffractive shutter technology and operation. However, the Flatcam camera system provides complete optical reconstruction for specific scenes, while the Rambus system is designed for machine use.
The advantage of the Flatcam camera system over conventional cameras is its extremely thin profile. Since the coded mask is located almost directly above the sensor, the overall assembly can be as small as 0.5 mm. However, the disadvantage is that in order to reconstruct the image, the energy cost of the operation is additionally increased.
At each point in the scene, an image is projected on the sensor, and then the data must be processed using the inverse function to produce the image.
(Source: Rice University)
The reticle contains a pattern of opaque and transparent areas, each of which can be considered a pinhole. Light is diffracted and tuned through the reticle, causing light from each point in the scene to project a complex shadow on the sensor and presenting this mapping through a linear operator. The arithmetic algorithm can be used to restore the original scene of the sensor measurement.
The researchers demonstrated the potential of the architecture with a prototype camera built with a 512 x 512 resolution commercial sensor and reticle. Researchers say the high integration and ultra-thin features of the single-chip make the camera more suitable for applications such as mobile and wearable devices and the Internet of Things.
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