Three-dimensional display by use of integral photography with dynamically variable image planes

A computer-generated integral photography system operating with a variable image plane is proposed. In this scheme, the gap between a lens array and a display panel is adjusted in real time. A synchronized elemental image array for real or virtual mode is integrated in front of or behind the lens array. This integration gives an observer an enhanced perception of depth. The proposed method can be applied to animated three-dimensional imaging.     

Computational integral imaging reconstruction scheme of far 3D objects by additional use of an imaging lens

In this paper, we propose a novel performance-enhanced computational integral imaging reconstruction (CIIR) scheme by additional use of an imaging lens. In the proposed scheme, elemental images can be obtained by using a simultaneous pickup scheme of far three-dimensional (3D) objects from the lenslet array in both real and virtual image fields. And additional imaging lens produces an image shift effect of 3D objects located far away from the lenslet array and improve the visual quality of reconstructed images in CIIR by overcoming limitation of pickup range in integral imaging. To show the usefulness of the proposed system, some experiments are carried out for real 3D objects and its results are presented.     

Wide-viewing projection-type integral imaging system with an embossed screen

A projection-type integral imaging system with an embossed screen is proposed to realize a wide viewing angle for the reconstructed image. The embossed screen is designed for virtual integral imaging in a projection-type system. It can enhance the viewing angle by increasing the effective region for each elemental image. The experimental result that verifies the merit of the proposed method is presented.     

Fabrication of polymer compound microlens by lens-on-lens microstructures

We proposed a novel method for fabricating polymer compound microlenses (PCMLs) using micro-inkjet technique and subsequent curing process. Two different types of PCMLs with sandwich microstructure (PDMS-Glycerol-PDMS), concave and convex PCMLs, have been designed and fabricated in experiments. Convex PCML has two real images and two foci. The concave PCML has one real and one virtual focal planes, which can generate one real image and one virtual image respectively. Moreover, the diameter of concave PCML can be controlled by adjusting the curing time and temperature. The proposed method is simple, efficient and suitable for realizing large-scale high numerical aperture PCMLs array, which has potential applications in diverse optical systems such as optical storage and three-dimensional imaging.     

A novel three-dimensional digital watermarking scheme basing on integral imaging

A novel integral imaging-based three-dimensional (3D) digital watermarking scheme is presented. In the proposed method, an elemental image array (EIA) obtained by recording the rays coming from a 3D object through a pinhole array in the integral imaging system is employed as a new 3D watermark. The EIA is composed of a number of small elemental images having their own perspectives of a 3D object, and from this recorded EIA various depth-dependent 3D object images can be reconstructed by using the computational integral imaging reconstruction (CIIR) technique. This 3D property of the EIA watermark can make a robust reconstruction of the watermark image available even though there are some data losses in the embedded watermark by attacks. To show the robustness of the proposed scheme against attacks, some experiments are carried out and the results are discussed.     

Optical 3D watermark based digital image watermarking for telemedicine

Region of interest (ROI) of a medical image is an area including important diagnostic information and must be stored without any distortion. This algorithm for application of watermarking technique for non-ROI of the medical image preserving ROI. The paper presents a 3D watermark based medical image watermarking scheme. In this paper, a 3D watermark object is first decomposed into 2D elemental image array (EIA) by a lenslet array, and then the 2D elemental image array data is embedded into the host image. The watermark extraction process is an inverse process of embedding. The extracted EIA through the computational integral imaging reconstruction (CIIR) technique, the 3D watermark can be reconstructed. Because the EIA is composed of a number of elemental images possesses their own perspectives of a 3D watermark object. Even though the embedded watermark data badly damaged, the 3D virtual watermark can be successfully reconstructed. Furthermore, using CAT with various rule number parameters, it is possible to get many channels for embedding. So our method can recover the weak point having only one transform plane in traditional watermarking methods. The effectiveness of the proposed watermarking scheme is demonstrated with the aid of experimental results.     

High Optical Magnification Three-Dimensional Integral Imaging of Biological Micro-organism

A high optical magnification three-dimensional imaging system is proposed using an optic microscope whose ocular(eyepiece) is retained and the structure of the transmission mode is not destroyed. The elemental image array is captured through the micro lens array. Due to the front diffuse transmission element, each micro lens sees a slightly different spatial perspective of the scene, and a different independent image is formed in each micro lens channel. Each micro lens channel is imaged by a Fourier lens and captured by a CCD. The design translating the stage in x or y provides no parallax. Compared with the conventional integral imaging of micro-objects, the optical magnification of micro-objects in the proposed system can enhanced remarkably. The principle of the enhancement of the image depth is explained in detail and the experimental results are presented.     

Robust image encryption by combined use of integral imaging and pixel scrambling techniques

A robust image encryption method by using the integral imaging and pixel scrambling (PS) techniques is proposed. In this method, pixels of the cover image are scrambled with the PS technique and elemental images for this scrambled image are picked up through a lenslet array. Subsequently, an encrypted image is obtained by scrambling these picked-up elemental images. Since this encrypted image has the hologram-like property of data redundancy resulted from the integral imaging scheme, while it can as well be decoded by multiple keys such as the orders of pixel scrambling and the pickup conditions of the elemental images, its security against the various attacks could be dramatically improved. Good experimental results also confirm that the proposed method could provide more enhanced robustness against data loss and Gaussian noises compared to the conventional methods.     

Analysis of the features and reconstruction of a high resolution infrared image based on a multi-aperture imaging system

Infrared images of good quality are strictly important for such applications as targets detection, tracking and identifying. Traditional single aperture infrared imaging system brings in some defects for its imaging scheme. Multi-aperture imaging system shows promising characteristic of improving image quality and reducing size of optical instruments. We reconstruct a high resolution infrared image from the low resolution sub-images collected by the compact multi-aperture imaging system. A novel reconstruction method called pixels closely arrange (PCA) is proposed based on analyzing the compound eye imaging process, and this method is verified in a simulated 3D infrared scene to capture sub-images. An evaluation of the reconstructed image quality is presented to discuss the significant factors that affect the final result. Experimental results show that the PCA method can be efficiently applied to the multi-aperture infrared imaging system as long as the structure of the micro-lens array is specifically designed to be adaptive to the infrared focal plane array (IFPA).     

Designing a genetic watermarking approach for 3D scenes

A new watermarking algorithm based on genetic algorithm (GA) in the transform domain is proposed. Unlike the existing computer-generated integral imaging based watermarking methods, the proposed method utilizes GA searching to the optimized transform domain to serve as a trade-off for watermark embedding. In this paper, 3D scene to be captured by using a virtual pinhole array and be computationally recorded as an elemental image array (EIA), watermarking with GA optimization and computer-generated holography is implemented. In the proposed GA optimization process, we utilize the fitness function to improve the visual quality of watermarked images and the robustness. Simulation results show that the proposed algorithm yields a holographic watermark that is imperceptibility to human eyes and robust to standard watermarking attacks. A comparison of the proposed watermarking method to the existing similar watermarking methods demonstrated that the proposed method generally outperforms completing methods in terms of imperceptibility and robustness.     

Reflection-type integral imaging scheme for displaying three-dimensional images

A reflection-type integral imaging scheme for displaying three-dimensional images is proposed. By use of a concave mirror array instead of a lens array, three-dimensional images are integrated in the form of a reflection type, and the experimental results are demonstrated. This scheme can readily be applied to a large integral imaging system by use of a beam projector that is located at a distance from the mirror-array plane.     

Three-dimensional integral imaging with large depth of focus by use of real and virtual image fields

We present an integral imaging method to enhance the depth of a three-dimensional image by displaying it throughout real and virtual image fields. When the product of depth and resolution square of the displayed three-dimensional image is used as a figure of merit in integral imaging systems, our method can maximize this merit especially when three-dimensional images with large depth of focus are displayed. The feasibility of our method is experimentally demonstrated by generation of elemental images by a computer.     

Three-dimensional visualization of objects in scattering medium using integral imaging and spectral analysis

This paper presents a three-dimensional visualization method of 3D objects in a scattering medium. The proposed method employs integral imaging and spectral analysis to improve the visual quality of 3D images. The images observed from 3D objects in the scattering medium such as turbid water suffer from image degradation due to scattering. The main reason is that the observed image signal is very weak compared with the scattering signal. Common image enhancement techniques including histogram equalization and contrast enhancement works improperly to overcome the problem. Thus, integral imaging that enables to integrate the weak signals from multiple images was discussed to improve image quality. In this paper, we apply spectral analysis to an integral imaging system such as the computational integral imaging reconstruction. Also, we introduce a signal model with a visibility parameter to analyze the scattering signal. The proposed method based on spectral analysis efficiently estimates the original signal and it is applied to elemental images. The visibility-enhanced elemental images are then used to reconstruct 3D images using a computational integral imaging reconstruction algorithm. To evaluate the proposed method, we perform the optical experiments for 3D objects in turbid water. The experimental results indicate that the proposed method outperforms the existing methods.     

Modified computational integral imaging-based double image encryption using fractional Fourier transform

In this paper, we propose an image encryption technique to simultaneously encrypt double or multiple images into one encrypted image using computational integral imaging (CII) and fractional Fourier transform (FrFT). In the encryption, each of the input plane images are located at different positions along a pickup plane, and simultaneously recorded in the form of an elemental image array (EIA) through a lenslet array. The recorded EIA to be encrypted is multiplied by FrFT with two different fractional orders. In order to mitigate the drawbacks of occlusion noise in computational integral imaging reconstruction (CIIR), the plane images can be reconstructed using a modified CIIR technique. To further improve the solution of the reconstructed plane images, a block matching algorithm is also introduced. Numerical simulation results verify the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.     

基于立体像素匹配的图像重构技术研究

为了解决目前全景成像技术中分辨率低的问题,提出了一种新的基于3D场景立体像素光线映射的全景图像计算机重构技术.在全景成像技术中,3D场景的每个立体像素点经全景成像系统的编码系统分别映射在一定区域的多个体元素图像的不同像素点上.在计算机重构全景图像时,根据逆光学路径原理,提出了从立体像素映射到的体元素图像区域中提取对应立体像素的多个2D像素点来重构全景图像,使重构的全景图像最大分辨率可达到传统成像方法图像分辨率的N倍（N为映射区域面积）.提出的立体像素的匹配技术大大提高了重构的计算机全景图像分辨率.     

Viewing-angle-enhanced integral imaging by lens switching

In spite of the many advantages of integral imaging, its narrow viewing angle has been a disadvantage. We propose a method to enhance the viewing angle of integral imaging by opening and shutting each lens in the array (i.e., the elemental lenses) sequentially. We prove our idea by using a mask that has a pattern of an on-off vertical array of apertures. Moving the mask prevents the aliasing of a neighboring lens. Thus image overlap or image flipping is reduced and the viewing angle of the system is increased.     

Modified smart pixel mapping method for displaying orthoscopic 3D images in integral imaging

In this paper, we propose a modified smart pixel mapping (MSPM) method for displaying orthoscopic three-dimensional (3D) images with a function of depth control in integral imaging system. In the proposed MSPM, the depth-converted elemental image array (EIA) is obtained through the pixel mapping process and the image interpolation technique. The proposed method gives us the depth conversion at distances different from the position of 3D object and provides various types of EIAs using only an original EIA for orthoscopic images. To show the usefulness of the proposed method, we carry out the preliminary experiments and present the experimental results.     

A 3D image encryption technique using computer-generated integral imaging and cellular automata transform

A novel three-dimensional (3D) image encryption approach by using the computer-generated integral imaging and cellular automata transform (CAT) is proposed, in which, the two-dimensional (2D) elemental image array (EIA) digitally recorded by light rays coming from the 3D image is mapped inversely through the virtual pinhole array according to the ray-tracing theory. Next, the encrypted image is generated by using the 2D CAT scrambling transform for the 2D EIA. The reconstructed process is carried out by using the modified computational integral-imaging reconstruction (CIIR) technique; the depth-dependent plane images are reconstructed on the output plane. The reconstructed 3D image quality of the proposed scheme can be greatly improved, because the proposed encryption scheme carries out in a computer which can avoid the light diffraction caused by optical device CIIR, and solves blur problem caused by CIIR by using the pixel-averaging algorithm. Furthermore, the CAT-based encryption algorithm is an error-free encryption method; CAT as an orthogonal transformation offers considerable simplicity in the calculation of the transform coefficient, that is, it can improve the quality of the reconstructed image by reducing energy loss compared with the traditional complicated transform process. To show the effectiveness of the proposed scheme, we perform computational experiments. Experimental results show that the proposed scheme outperforms conventional encryption methods.     

3D image reconstruction with controllable spatial filtering based on correlation of multiple periodic functions in computational integral imaging

We propose a novel method of slice image reconstruction with controllable spatial filtering by using the correlation of periodic delta-function arrays(PDFAs) with elemental images in computational integral imaging. The multiple PDFAs, whose spatial periods correspond to object's depths with the elemental image array(EIA), can generate a set of spatially filtered EIAs for multiple object depths compared with the conventional method for the depth of a single object. We analyze a controllable spatial filtering effect by the proposed method.To show the feasibility of the proposed method, we carry out preliminary experiments for multiple objects and present the results.     

超声虚源成像中自适应双向空间逐点聚焦方法

针对传统超声成像中图像分辨率和对比度随深度下降的问题,提出了一种基于虚源的自适应双向空间逐点聚焦超声成像方法。首先,使用超声换能器线列阵分子孔径分别定焦点发射和接收超声波,采集扫描线数据;然后将焦点视为虚拟点声源,计算虚源到空间成像点的延时,利用合成孔径原理再次进行空间逐点聚焦;在合成过程中采用相干系数进行自适应加权。采用空间脉冲响应法对不同深度的点目标和囊目标仿真成像,从而量化分辨率和对比度。在F数为1.5、焦距为10 mm时(对应子孔径阵元数为17)可以获得与64通道定焦点发射、动态聚焦接收相当的图像质量且在所有深度上保持一致。实际硬件平台的体模成像实验进一步验证了方法的有效性。该方法可在整个成像深度范围内保持和常规成像一致的分辨率和对比度,从而获得更优的整体成像效果。