Optical imaging with scanning MEMS mirror: a single photodetector approach

  • Authors:

  • Li Li;Mohammad Mirza;Vladimir Stanković;Lijie Li;Lina Stanković;Deepak Uttamchandani;Samuel Cheng

  • Affiliations:

  • Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK;Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK;Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK;Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK;Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK;Department of Electronic and Electrical Engineering, University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK;School of Electrical and Computer Engineering, University of Oklahoma, OK

  • Venue:
  • ICIP'09 Proceedings of the 16th IEEE international conference on Image processing
  • Year:
  • 2009

Quantified Score

Hi-index 0.00

Visualization

Abstract

This paper describes an optical system for low-complexity optical image acquisition based on a single scanning MEMS mirror and a single photodetector. The overall aim of the research is to investigate techniques for image acquisition at electromagnetic wavelengths where the cost and/or technical maturity of detector arrays pose a limitation. In contrast to similar systems built using a digital micromirror device (DMD), the present configuration has advantages of lower cost and potential applicability across a wide spectrum, ranging from visible to Terahertz frequencies. In the present arrangement, light at visible wavelengths from the object passes through a telescope and falls onto a small, scanning MEMS micromirror. The entire image of the object is projected onto the mirror surface and reflected towards a single photodetector with a pinhole at its entrance. Similarly to conventional scanning, by finely changing the tilt-angle of the mirror, the detector sees different areas of the projected image, thereby building up an image pixel-bypixel. Resolution is increased by allowing for an overlap between neighbouring scanned areas. Iterative bilinear interpolation and wavelet denoising are employed to enhance image quality.