SBIR Phase I: Development of a midwave infrared plenoptic camera prototype

这个小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目的更广泛的影响/商业潜力是证明一种新的摄像机解决方案在夜间或白天以及恶劣天气下的可行性。如今的自动驾驶辅助系统通常不足以在夜间或恶劣条件下识别行人。 该项目将展示一种摄像头解决方案，该解决方案将在所有天气条件下昼夜运行，并检测和分类行人，骑自行车的人，动物以及车辆（移动或静止），这一小型企业创新研究（SBIR）第一阶段项目通过引入一种高性能的高分辨率3D传感器，在任何照明条件和大多数天气条件下都能表现出色。该研究建立在光场或全光技术的基础上，这些技术在可见光领域被证明是有效的，并将其应用于热领域。专用微透镜阵列（MLA）与中波红外（MWIR）相机和新的热计算摄影测量算法相结合，以提供密集的2D和范围信息，并提供足够的细节，以快速对周围物体进行分类。特别是，它将显示三维MWIR视频非常适合容易检测和分类的对象，可能会移动，如行人，车辆和动物。这个奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并已被认为是值得通过使用基金会的智力价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估的支持。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project is to demonstrate the viability of a new camera solution for night or day and in adverse weather. Today's automatic driver assist systems are often inadequate for identifying pedestrians at night or in poor conditions. This project will demonstrate a camera solution that will operate day and night, in all weather, and detects and classifies pedestrians, cyclists, animals as well as vehicles (either moving or stationary), thereby unlocking safer vehicle operation and saving lives.This Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Phase I project addresses a shortcoming of contemporary autonomous vehicle sensors by introducing a high-resolution 3D sensor that performs well in any lighting condition and most weather conditions. The research builds upon light field, or plenoptic, technologies proven effective in the visible domain and applies them to the thermal domain with additional innovations. A purpose-built microlens array (MLA) is coupled with a mid-wave infrared (MWIR) camera and new thermal computational photogrammetry algorithms to deliver dense 2D and range information with sufficient detail to quickly classify surrounding objects. In particular, it will be shown that 3D MWIR video is ideally suited to readily detect and classify objects that may move such as pedestrians, vehicles and animals.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.