Unified Electro-Optic Imaging Design with Digital Filter Optimization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Traditional electro-optic imaging systems are designed in separate stages without coordination between optical and digital image processing subsystems, leading to overlooked synergies and unrealized potential in overall system performance.
Innovation Solution
A unified design strategy that jointly optimizes the optical and digital image processing subsystems using a post-processing performance metric, relaxing the requirement for high image quality intermediate optical images and allowing for fewer components, smaller size, and lower cost.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of manufacture
If traditional separate-stage design is used for optical and digital image processing subsystems, then each subsystem can be designed independently with established methods, but synergies between subsystems are overlooked and overall system performance is suboptimal
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges the optical subsystem design and digital image processing subsystem design into a unified end-to-end design process. The joint optimization framework simultaneously optimizes optical parameters (lens curvature, aperture, focal length) and digital filter parameters (kernel size, coefficients) to maximize overall system performance, thereby capturing synergies that would be missed in separate-stage design.
2Measurement precision
If high image quality intermediate optical image is required, then optical subsystem must be highly complex and expensive, but digital image processing capabilities can be reduced
Solution Approach 1:
The patent replaces the mechanical/optical approach of achieving high image quality through complex optical subsystem design with a digital signal processing approach. By using digital image processing to correct optical aberrations and restore image quality, the system achieves the same measurement precision with reduced optical complexity and cost.
3Productivity
If optical subsystem is optimized without considering digital image processing, then optical design is simpler and faster, but the final system performance is compromised
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies preliminary action by pre-defining performance metrics and constraints that guide both optical and digital filter design from the outset. The joint optimization framework establishes target performance criteria before design begins, allowing coordinated optimization of both subsystems to achieve the desired final system performance.
4Device complexity
If digital filter size is constrained, then computational resources are reduced and processing is faster, but ability to correct optical aberrations is limited
Solution Approach 1:
The patent applies parameter changes by optimizing digital filter parameters (kernel size, coefficients, shape) within constrained dimensions to maximize aberration correction capability. The joint optimization framework adjusts these parameters to achieve the best possible measurement precision given the computational constraints on filter size.
Data Source
AI summary
A unified design strategy takes into account different subsystems within an overall electro-optic imaging system. In one implementation, the design methodology predicts end-to-end imaging performance using a spatial model for the source and models for the optical subsystem, the detector subsystem and the digital image processing subsystem. The optical subsystem and digital image processing subsystems are jointly designed taking into account the entire system. The intermediate image produced by the optical subsystem is not required to be high quality since, for example, the quality may be corrected by the digital image processing subsystem.