Ultra-Fast Computational Imaging Seeing the world at picosecond timescales

Abstract

Optical imaging at nanosecond to picosecond timescales typically require a combination of ultra-fast hardware and computational algorithms. In this talk I will cover different hardware implementations of ultra-fast imaging systems and their applications. Besides the fast capture speed, these systems require high light sensitivity and capture hardware with large gain or photon counting capabilities are typically used. In the past, streak cameras and gated image intensifiers have been among the most capable and practical hardware choices. More recently, single photon avalanche diodes (SPAD) promise similar performance in a CMOS semiconductor chip that can be made compact and inexpensive. Besides the imaging of fast changing optical phenomena such as light filamentation and fluorescence, the propagation of light itself through a scene can be imaged at picosecond timescales. The temporal decay of a fluorescence signal or the fluorescence lifetime can aid for example the classification of minerals, the assessment of plant health, or the identification of cancerous tissue. Imaging of light propagation on the other hand allows the reconstruction of images from indirect or scattered light enabling imaging around corners or non-line-of-sight imaging and imaging through scattering materials such as fog or tissue.

About the Speaker 

Andreas Velten is Assistant Professor at the Department of Biostatistics and Medical Informatics and the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and directs the Computational Optics Group. He obtained his PhD in Physics at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque and was a postdoctoral associate of the Camera Culture Group of Ramesh Raskar at the MIT Media Lab. He has won numerous awards for his research, such as inclusion in the MIT TR35 list of the world's top innovators under the age of 35. He has founded multiple companies and is co-Founder and Chief Technology officer of Onlume, a company that develops imaging solutions for medical surgeries.