High Depth-of-Field Panoramic Video Acquisition and Analysis of Dynamic Scenes

"This project is aimed at investigating the feasibility of the design of a family of versatile new image sensors. A typical such sensor can (i) have an infinite depth of field, (ii) provide a panoramic images of up to 360-degree wide visual fields, (iii)provide an estimate of the depth of each visible point in the scene, (iv) preserve the image resolution across the panoramic image, and (v) image a dynamic scene, and (vi) offers a trade off between cost and performance measured in terms of the quality offocus (resolution of the depth of field), reliability of depth estimates and the width of the visual field. A progressive design that will offer 5 such tradeoffs will be investigated. Two designs add new capabilities to a prototype developed under aprevious SBIR award and being commercialized by a major company. Two additional designs examine the feasibility of a new approach to further extend the capabilities. The feasibility of the final design, which provides all aforementioned capabilities in asingle system, is proposed as an option along with the analysis of the acquired images for object motion detection and estimation, and 3D modeling. All proposed designs appear integrable and commercially viable Imaging pervades all walks of everyday life - business, industry, education and homes alike. Since the proposed new imaging technology will introduce hitherto unavailable capabilities as well as lead to significant strides in existing