Lensless, single-pixel camera gets better resolution and speed from additional pixel

MIT Technology Review : A team led by Hong Jiang of Alcatel-Lucent’s Bell Labs recently announced the development of a lensless, one-pixel camera. The researchers have now expanded the capabilities of the device by adding a second pixel. Instead of a lens, the camera uses an LCD panel that functions as an array of individually controllable apertures. In the single-pixel version, the apertures are opened and closed randomly to create a time sequence of light patterns, which is recorded by the pixel. The camera then finds correlations within the patterns to construct a composite image from the exposures. The benefit to the technique is the removal of the lens, which is often heavy and expensive. The addition of a second pixel, which operates exactly the same as the first, allows for a second, slightly different image to be taken of the same scene. By combining the patterns from both pixels, a detailed image can be completed twice as quickly and with higher resolution than a single pixel can produce. The technology could allow space-based telescopes to produce high-resolution images without a lens and thus reduce both the satellites’ weight and cost.