Structured Illumination Super-Resolution Imaging
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Digital imaging systems are limited by diffraction, leading to a loss of spatial detail due to their finite bandwidth, which existing technologies have not effectively addressed.
Innovation Solution
The system employs structured illumination by projecting spatially periodic patterns onto a scene, allowing the imaging system to capture modulated components and demodulate them to recover spatial frequencies beyond the optical passband, thereby achieving optical superresolution without altering the physical parameters of the imaging system.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional imaging systems are used, then the system structure is simple, but the spatial resolution is limited by diffraction
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces structured illumination patterns as an intermediary between the light source and the imaging system. These patterns modulate the scene's spatial frequencies, allowing high-frequency information to be shifted into the passband of the imaging system. The illumination patterns act as a mediator that enables recovery of spatial details beyond the diffraction limit without modifying the imaging system's physical parameters.
2Measurement precision
If the optical passband is increased to capture more spatial frequencies, then the spatial resolution improves, but the device complexity increases
Solution Approach 1:
The patent changes the parameters of the illumination light rather than the imaging system's optical parameters. By modulating the spatial frequency content of the illumination patterns and varying their orientation, the system effectively shifts the scene's spectral content into the passband. This approach achieves super-resolution by changing illumination parameters instead of altering the imaging system's physical constraints.
3Measurement precision
If structured illumination patterns are projected, then spatial frequencies beyond the optical passband are recovered, but the imaging process becomes more complex
Solution Approach 1:
The patent employs periodic structured illumination patterns with specific spatial frequencies and orientations. By projecting multiple patterns with different orientations (e.g., horizontal and vertical) and modulating them periodically, the system captures modulated image signals that contain high-frequency information. The periodic nature of the illumination allows for systematic extraction of spatial frequencies through demodulation processes.
Solution Approach 2:
The imaging process is segmented into multiple steps: projecting structured illumination patterns, capturing modulated images, identifying modulation frequencies, demodulating the signals, and reconstructing the super-resolved image. This segmentation of the imaging process allows complex super-resolution to be achieved through a series of manageable operations rather than a single complex step.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This method enables the recovery of spatial detail exceeding the optical passband, enhancing image resolution by modulating and demodulating the image signals, effectively overcoming the diffraction limits of conventional imaging systems.
Implementation Method 1
The system employs structured illumination by projecting spatially periodic patterns onto a scene
Implementation Method 2
The resolution of a digital imaging system may be limited by diffraction due, for example, to diffraction limits of the imaging system
Data Source
AI summary
A system for capturing super-resolved images includes a camera and a projector. The projector projects a spatially periodic illumination pattern onto the scene to be captured. The spatially periodic illumination patterns may include any pattern or combination of patterns that result in complex modulation. The objects of the scene modulate the spatially periodic illumination patterns, shifting high spatial frequencies into the passband of the camera's optical transfer function. The images may be demodulated, and the demodulated components may be combined with un-modulated components. The resulting image has characteristics of the high spatial frequencies previously beyond the optical passband of the camera.