Metamaterial Apertures for Computational Imaging

• Published in: Science (American Association for the Advancement of Science) Vol. 339; no. 6117; pp. 310 - 313
• Main Authors: Hunt, John, Driscoll, Tom, Mrozack, Alex, Lipworth, Guy, Reynolds, Matthew, Brady, David, Smith, David R.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Association for the Advancement of Science 18.01.2013; The American Association for the Advancement of Science
• Subjects: Algorithms; Cameras; Compressed; Computer simulation; Document imaging; Exact sciences and technology; Frequency ranges; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Geometric angles; Image compression; Image reconstruction; tomography; Imaging; Imaging and optical processing; Mathematical objects; Metamaterials; Microwave imaging; Microwaves; Optical materials; Optics; Physics; Pictures; Pixels; Redundant; Scientific imaging; Tuning; Waveguides; Diffraction limit; Optical materials; Metamaterial; Data acquisition systems; Image reconstruction; Microwave imaging
• ISSN: 0036-8075; 1095-9203
• DOI: 10.1126/science.1230054

By leveraging metamaterials and compressive imaging, a low-profile aperture capable of microwave imaging without lenses, moving parts, or phase shifters is demonstrated. This designer aperture allows image compression to be performed on the physical hardware layer rather than in the postprocessing stage, thus averting the detector, storage, and transmission costs associated with full diffraction-limited sampling of a scene. A guided-wave metamaterial aperture is used to perform compressive image reconstruction at 10 frames per second of two-dimensional (range and angle) sparse still and video scenes at K-band (18 to 26 gigahertz) frequencies, using frequency diversity to avoid mechanical scanning. Image acquisition is accomplished with a 40:1 compression ratio.