Channel reduction and applications to image processing.

Oftentimes when one is dealing with digital color images it is desired that some sort of image processing be performed on the spatial information. Current methods require that one process each of the channels (also called planes or colors) of an image separately, which increases the number of computations significantly. A novel, to our knowledge, approach to reducing the number of channels in a color image is presented.

Passive ranging through wave-front coding: information and application.

Passive-ranging systems based on wave-front coding are introduced. These single-aperture hybrid optical-digital systems are analyzed by use of linear models and the Fisher information matrix. Two schemes for passive ranging by use of a single aperture and a single image are investigated: (i) estimating the range to an object and (ii) detecting objects over a set of ranges.

Control of chromatic focal shift through wave-front coding.

Control of chromatic aberration through purely optical means is well known. We present a novel, to our knowledge, optical-digital method of controlling chromatic aberration. The optical-digital system, which incorporates a cubic phase-modulation (CPM) plate in the optical system and postprocessing of the detected image, effectively reduces a system's sensitivity to misfocus in general or axial (longitudinal) chromatic aberration, in particular.

Realizations of focus invariance in optical-digital systems with wave-front coding.

We report experimental verification of an extended depth of focus (EDF) system with near-diffraction-limited performance capabilities. Dowski and Cathey [Appl. Opt.

Effect of detector noise in incoherent hybrid imaging systems.

Hybrid imaging systems involve the joint design of an optical image-gathering module and digital processing algorithms to obtain a required final image. They have the potential to achieve imaging performance hitherto unobtainable by conventional imaging techniques. A reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio of the final image is one of their main disadvantages when one is considering linear signal processing.