CAREER: Towards Computational Interferometric Imaging

尽管计算光传输系统的多样性，所有现有的技术都局限于宏观尺度的成像，范围从几厘米到几米。这一限制使得现有的计算光传输技术及其所实现的卓越功能无法用于需要微观成像的几个关键应用领域，如医学成像、工业制造和材料科学。该项目旨在通过在计算光传输和光学干涉成像之间建立一座桥梁来改变这种状况，光学干涉成像是一种非常适合微观成像的波光学技术。该项目将生产一套计算干涉测量系统，在微观尺度上实现全谱计算光传输能力。该项目包括与研究活动紧密结合的教育和推广计划，即：1)创建视觉计算，光学和成像的跨学科课程；2)一系列针对初高中学生的工作坊和暑期课程。这些活动将带来长期的社会效益，鼓励中等教育学生和传统上代表性不足的背景的学生将STEM研究和教育作为职业道路。该项目将通过三个紧密耦合的研究重点来实现其目标：1)该项目将建立统一非相干和相干成像概念的理论基础。这些发现的理论将使新的干涉成像系统的设计成为可能，该系统可以被编程来选择性地测量任意光路，同时在微观尺度上运行。2)该项目将在一系列微观应用中部署这些系统，包括形状扫描、散射断层扫描和非视距成像。这些特定任务的实现将展示计算干涉测量的灵活性和改进的性能。3)该项目将设计混合光学-数字系统，使用计算干涉测量系统作为光学计算机，以提高速度和信噪比进行常见计算。生产的计算干涉测量系统将在医学（深层组织成像），工业制造（闭环制造）和材料分析（散射材料表征）的真实条件下进行评估，从而在这些关键应用领域产生变革性影响的强大潜力。该奖项反映了美国国家科学基金会的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Despite the diversity of computational light transport systems, all existing technologies are constrained to imaging at macroscopic scales, ranging from a few centimeters to several meters. This constraint places existing computational light transport techniques, and the remarkable capabilities they enable, outside of reach for several critical application areas that require imaging at microscopic scales, such as medical imaging, industrial fabrication, and material science. This project aims to change this state of affairs, by creating a bridge between computational light transport and optical interferometric imaging, a wave-optics technology well-suited for microscopic imaging. The project will produce a suite of computational interferometry systems that make available the full spectrum of computational light transport capabilities at microscopic scales. The project includes education and outreach programs tightly coupled to the research activities, namely: 1) the creation of interdisciplinary courses in visual computing, optics, and imaging; and 2) a series of workshops and summer courses for middle and high school students. These activities will bring long-term societal benefit, by encouraging students in secondary education and from traditionally under-represented backgrounds to take up STEM research and education as a career path.The project will achieve its objective through three tightly coupled research thrusts: 1) The project will develop theoretical foundations that unify concepts across incoherent and coherent imaging. The discovered theories will enable the design of new interferometric imaging systems that can be programmed to selectively measure arbitrary light paths, while operating at microscopic scales. 2) The project will deploy these systems in a range of microscopic applications, including shape scanning, scattering tomography, and non-line-of-sight imaging. These task-specific implementations will demonstrate the flexibility and improved performance of computational interferometry. 3) The project will design hybrid optical-digital systems that use computational interferometry systems as optical computers, to perform common calculations with improved speed and signal-to-noise ratio. The produced computational interferometry systems will be evaluated under real conditions in medicine (deep tissue imaging), industrial manufacturing (closed-loop fabrication), and material analysis (scattering material characterization), thus creating strong potential for transformative impact in these critical application areas.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.