Single-Pixel Imaging Through Dynamic Scattering Media

Description (excerpt)

CROSS-REFERENCE This application is a Nonprovisional of and claims the benefit of priority as a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/691,172 filed on Mar. 10, 2022, which claims the benefit of priority under 35 U.S.C. § 119 based on U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/185,509 filed on May 7, 2021. The disclosures of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 63/185,509, U.S. patent application Ser. No. 17/691,172, and all references cited herein are hereby incorporated herein by reference into the present disclosure in their entirety. FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT The United States Government has ownership rights in this invention. Licensing inquiries may be directed to Office of Technology Transfer, US Naval Research Laboratory, Code 1004, Washington, DC 20375, USA; +1.202.767.7230; nrltechtran@us.navy.mil, referencing Navy Case #210196. TECHNICAL FIELD The present invention relates to the field of digital imaging. BACKGROUND Digital images are an increasingly important aspect of modern life. They are a key component of systems for autonomous vehicles, machine vision, and artificial intelligence, among others, or simply for storage of historical records. Charge Coupled Device (CCD) and Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS) cameras are commonly used to produce such digital images. These are multi-pixel devices that may not be the best choice for some applications due to their limited sensitivity in a region of the optical spectrum of interest or price. For this reason, imaging with structured light beams using single-pixel cameras (SPCs) that use a single bucket detector has attracted considerable attention in recent years. SPCs use small variations of the detected light that are correlated with various illumination patterns to reconstruct a two-dimensional image using various numeric algorithms. However, this reconstruction can fail if there is extraneous variation of the detected light due to a dynamic environment, such as smoke, fog or scattering by particles in water. Ghost imaging and compressive imaging approaches have been implemented to successfully acquire images under various conditions. A high-pass digital filter has been used in some cases to reduce the effects of background light disturbances in ghost imaging. See W. Zhang et al., “Digital filtering ghost imaging to remove light disturbances,” Appl. Opt. 60, 809 (2021). One approach that has been used to reduce these background light disturbances is 3-D imaging. See L. Li et al., “Gated viewing laser imaging with compressive sensing,” Appl. Opt. 51, 2706-2712 (2012); N. D. Hardy et al., “Computational ghost imaging versus imaging laser radar for three-dimensional imaging,” Phys. Rev. A 87, 023820 (2013); and M.-J. Sun, et al., “Single-pixel three-dimensional imaging with time-based depth resolution,” Nat. Commun. 7, 12010 (2016). Another imaging technique that has been used recently is that of single photon imaging. See Y. Zhu, et al., “Photon-limited non-imaging object detection and classification based on single-pixel imaging system,” Appl. Phys. B 126, 21 (2020)). Single photon imaging utilizes detectors that are capable of responding to light at the quantum limit of one photon at a time. It allows acquisition of images under low light conditions which is desirable for delicate samples, long distance or covert imaging. In many cases, the object to be imaged is situated within a turbulent medium, or a turbulent medium is situated between the target object and the remote imaging equipment, and techniques have been developed to address the issues related to imaging in such turbulent media. See D. Hardy et al., “Reflective ghost imaging through turbulence,” Phys. Rev. A 84, 063824 (2011); M. A. Cox, et al., “Structured Light in Turbulence,” IEEE J. Sel. Top. Quantum Electron. 27, 1-21 (2021)); B. I. Erkmen, “Computational ghost imaging for remote sensing,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 29, 782 (2012); T. Shirai, et al., “Imaging through an aberrating medium with classical ghost diffraction,” J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 29, 1288 (2012); and Y.-P. Yao, et al., “Effect of turbulence on visibility and signal-to-noise ratio of lensless ghost imaging with thermal light,” Optik 124, 6973-6977 (2013). The major issue with imaging through a dynamic scattering medium such as fog is attenuation due to scattering, which presents problems for all imaging systems. See A. Liutkus, et al., “Imaging With Nature: Compressive Imaging Using a Multiply Scattering Medium,” Sci. Rep. 4, 5552 (2015); V. Durán, et al., “Compressive imaging in scattering media,” Opt. Express 23, 14424 (2015); and B. Rajaei, et al., “Intensity-only optical compressive imaging using a multiply scattering material and a double phase retrieval app