Active Computational Imaging Using a Dense Array of Projectors and Cameras

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Although arrays of cameras have existed in various forms for more than a century, arrays of projectors have been limited by available technology to small numbers of devices. As the number of projectors that can be feasibly assembled into an array increases, one can begin to treat the illumination produced by the array as a light field - radiance as a function of ray position and direction in free space. The light field has been studied abstractly by numerous researchers; however, physical systems for generating light fields have been severely limited in resolution by the cost and size of projectors. The investigators are building an array of 128 miniature, SVGA-resolution video projectors, and will interleave these projectors with an existing array of 128 video cameras, thereby producing a device that can both record and generate light fields - a fundamentally new capability. These new techniques will yield new methodologies for image-based modeling, inspection and motion capture and will have applications in areas such as in entertainment, archaeology, and modeling and simulation for training and mission rehearsal.Using the existing camera array the investigators have studied several types of high-performance imaging, including high-speed videography, synthetic aperture photography, and tiled panoramic imaging. Using the new hybrid array,they will explore two additional problems: (1) Measuring the 3D shape of an object from every direction at once, meaning capturing all sides of the object in parallel. No existing technology can do this, at least not at optical wavelengths. The goals are near-instantaneous shape capture of a moving object and full-shape motion capture of moving objects. (2) Illumination of physical objects non-photorealistically, to enhance their appearance as seen by a human observer. Examples include recoloring, cloaking, or illumination that is everywhere-perpendicular or everywhere-grazing to the surface of the object.