EDBT 2026 Demo / reviewers in the wild / expert
Andreas Velten
dblp:10/9990
· DBLP profile ↗
30ranked-venue papers
1as first author
14since 2021 · last 2025
0000-0001-5591-828XORCID · verified
Domains — the database's venue-derived domains; a paper can count in several
Graphics, computer vision, multimedia, augmented reality and games · 25 · 1 first-author · 11 since 2021Artificial intelligence and machine learning · 15 · 7 since 2021Systems, architecture and hardware · 1 · 1 since 2021
| Year | Publication | Venue | Position |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2025 | Zero-Phase Phasor Fields for Non-Line-of-Sight ImagingabstractNon-line-of-sight imaging employs ultra-fast illumination and sensing devices to reconstruct scenes outside their line of sight by analyzing the temporal profile of indirect scattered illumination on a secondary relay surface. Commonly, the NLOS methods transform the temporal domain into the frequency domain and operate on it, and then identify surface locations by locating the maxima in amplitude along the reconstruction volume. Phase information, which is virtual as it results from a Fourier transform, is very often discarded or ignored. We incorporate phase information into our novel Zero-Phase Phasor Fields imaging technique, which we derive for a confocal capture configuration. We show how, at positions that belong to the hidden geometry, we can ensure the phase is zero, so we can locate the hidden geometry with great precision by locating the zero crossings in the phase. This allows us to reconstruct at widely spaced locations and still achieve up to 125 micrometer depth precision, as our experimental validation shows with both synthetic and captured data, the latter publicly available. Moreover, the phase is robust to noise, as we demonstrate with decreasing signal-to-noise ratio using publicly available dataset captures of the same scene. Pablo Luesia-Lahoz, Talha Sultan, Forrest B. Peterson, Andreas Velten, Diego Gutierrez, Adolfo Muñoz 0001 |
ICCP | 4 |
| 2025 | Robust 3D Object Detection Using Probabilistic Point Clouds From Single-Photon LidarsabstractLiDAR-based 3D sensors provide point clouds, a canonical 3D representation used in various scene understanding tasks. Modern LiDARs face key challenges in several real-world scenarios, such as long-distance or low-albedo objects, producing sparse or erroneous point clouds. These errors, which are rooted in the noisy raw LiDAR measurements, get propagated to downstream perception models, resulting in potentially severe loss of accuracy. This is because conventional 3D processing pipelines do not retain any uncertainty information from the raw measurements when constructing point clouds. We propose Probabilistic Point Clouds (PPC), a novel 3D scene representation where each point is augmented with a probability attribute that encapsulates the measurement uncertainty (or confidence) in the raw data. We further introduce inference approaches that leverage PPC for robust 3D object detection; these methods are versatile and can be used as computationally lightweight drop-in modules in 3D inference pipelines. We demonstrate, via both simulations and real captures, that PPC-based 3D inference methods outperform several baselines using LiDAR as well as camera-LiDAR fusion models, across challenging indoor and outdoor scenarios involving small, distant, and low-albedo objects, as well as strong ambient light. Our project webpage is at https://bhavyagoyal.github.io/ppc . Bhavya Goyal, Felipe Gutierrez-Barragan, Andreas Velten, Yin Li 0003, Mohit Gupta 0001 |
ICCV | 4 |
| 2025 | Quanta-Slomo: Single Photon Camera Guided 100x Video Frame InterpolationabstractVideo Frame Interpolation (VFI) enhances video quality by computationally increasing video frame rates. Conventional VFI methods rely on simplified motion assumptions (e.g. linear motion) between adjacent frames to generate intermediate frames, which often causes error in highly dynamic scenarios. The Single Photon Avalanche Diode (SPAD) array is an emerging type of quanta image sensor that can capture videos at very high frame rates but can be heavily corrupted by Poisson noise. We present Quanta-SloMo, a novel VFI method that leverages the high frame rate but noisy video from a SPAD sensor to guide the VFI of high quality, low frame rate video captured by a CMOS sensor. Our framework utilizes residual learning, feature alignment through deformable convolution, multi-frame merging, and handles the noise-to-blur trade-off between SPAD video frames through a virtual exposure stack. We demonstrate that Quanta-SloMo outperforms state-of-the-art VFI methods by significant margins, especially for scenes with large motion. Anustup Choudhury, Guan-Ming Su, Andreas Velten |
ICIP | 4 |
| 2025 | Physics to the Rescue: Deep Non-Line-of-Sight Reconstruction for High-Speed ImagingabstractComputational approach to imaging around the corner, or non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging, is becoming a reality thanks to major advances in imaging hardware and reconstruction algorithms. A recent development towards practical NLOS imaging, (Nam et al. 2021) demonstrated a high-speed non-confocal imaging system that operates at 5Hz, 100x faster than the prior art. This enormous gain in acquisition rate, however, necessitates numerous approximations in light transport, breaking many existing NLOS reconstruction methods that assume an idealized image formation model. To bridge the gap, we present a novel deep model that incorporates the complementary physics priors of wave propagation and volume rendering into a neural network for high-quality and robust NLOS reconstruction. This orchestrated design regularizes the solution space by relaxing the image formation model, resulting in a deep model that generalizes well on real captures despite being exclusively trained on synthetic data. Further, we devise a unified learning framework that enables our model to be flexibly trained using diverse supervision signals, including target intensity images or even raw NLOS transient measurements. Once trained, our model renders both intensity and depth images at inference time in a single forward pass, capable of processing more than 5 captures per second on a high-end GPU. Through extensive qualitative and quantitative experiments, we show that our method outperforms prior physics and learning based approaches on both synthetic and real measurements. We anticipate that our method along with the fast capturing system will accelerate future development of NLOS imaging for real world applications that require high-speed imaging. Fangzhou Mu, Sicheng Mo, Jiayong Peng, Xiaochun Liu, Ji Hyun Nam, Siddeshwar Raghavan, Andreas Velten, Yin Li 0003 |
IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. | 7 |
| 2023 | Fast Non-line-of-sight Imaging with Non-planar Relay SurfacesabstractNon-line-of-sight imaging methods reconstruct images from light captured off a relay surface. In most prior work this relay surface is a diffuse plane. It has been shown that even small deviations from a planar relay wall geometry quickly degrade reconstruction quality. Although existing methods can account for relay surface geometry in a straightforward way, they typically have high computational complexity and take orders of magnitude longer time to compute than state-of-the-art planar methods. In this work, we propose a fast algorithm that can perform non-line-of-sight reconstruction on arbitrary non-planar relay surfaces. Our algorithm has the same computational and memory complexity as the fastest existing algorithms, yet it achieves comparable reconstruction quality to the widely-used slower algorithms. Chaoying Gu, Talha Sultan, Khadijeh Masumnia-Bisheh, Laura Waller, Andreas Velten |
ICCP | 5 |
| 2023 | Learned Compressive Representations for Single-Photon 3D ImagingabstractSingle-photon 3D cameras can record the time-of-arrival of billions of photons per second with picosecond accuracy. One common approach to summarize the photon data stream is to build a per-pixel timestamp histogram, resulting in a 3D histogram tensor that encodes distances along the time axis. As the spatio-temporal resolution of the histogram tensor increases, the in-pixel memory requirements and output data rates can quickly become impractical. To overcome this limitation, we propose a family of linear compressive representations of histogram tensors that can be computed efficiently, in an online fashion, as a matrix operation. We design practical lightweight compressive representations that are amenable to an in-pixel implementation and consider the spatio-temporal information of each timestamp. Furthermore, we implement our proposed framework as the first layer of a neural network, which enables the joint end-to-end optimization of the compressive representations and a downstream SPAD data processing model. We find that a well-designed compressive representation can reduce in-sensor memory and data rates up to 2 orders of magnitude without significantly reducing 3D imaging quality. Finally, we analyze the power consumption implications through an on-chip implementation. Felipe Gutierrez-Barragan, Fangzhou Mu, Andrei Ardelean, Atul Ingle, Claudio Bruschini, Edoardo Charbon, Yin Li 0003, Mohit Gupta 0001, Andreas Velten |
ICCV | 9 |
| 2023 | Virtual Mirrors: Non-Line-of-Sight Imaging Beyond the Third BounceabstractNon-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging methods are capable of reconstructing complex scenes that are not visible to an observer using indirect illumination. However, they assume only third-bounce illumination, so they are currently limited to single-corner configurations, and present limited visibility when imaging surfaces at certain orientations. To reason about and tackle these limitations, we make the key observation that planar diffuse surfaces behave specularly at wavelengths used in the computational wave-based NLOS imaging domain. We call such surfaces virtual mirrors. We leverage this observation to expand the capabilities of NLOS imaging using illumination beyond the third bounce, addressing two problems: imaging single-corner objects at limited visibility angles, and imaging objects hidden behind two corners. To image objects at limited visibility angles, we first analyze the reflections of the known illuminated point on surfaces of the scene as an estimator of the position and orientation of objects with limited visibility. We then image those limited visibility objects by computationally building secondary apertures at other surfaces that observe the target object from a direct visibility perspective. Beyond single-corner NLOS imaging, we exploit the specular behavior of virtual mirrors to image objects hidden behind a second corner by imaging the space behind such virtual mirrors, where the mirror image of objects hidden around two corners is formed. No specular surfaces were involved in the making of this paper. Diego Royo, Talha Sultan, Adolfo Muñoz 0001, Khadijeh Masumnia-Bisheh, Eric Brandt, Diego Gutierrez, Andreas Velten, Julio Marco |
ACM Trans. Graph. | 7 |
| 2022 | Compressive Single-Photon 3D CamerasabstractSingle-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are an emerging pixel technology for time-of-flight (ToF) 3D cameras that can capture the time-of-arrival of individual photons at picosecond resolution. To estimate depths, current SPAD-based 3D cameras measure the round-trip time of a laser pulse by building a per-pixel histogram of photon times-tamps. As the spatial and timestamp resolution of SPAD-based cameras increase, their output data rates far exceed the capacity of existing data transfer technologies. One major reason for SPAD's bandwidth-intensive operation is the tight coupling that exists between depth resolution and histogram resolution. To weaken this coupling, we propose compressive single-photon histograms (CSPH). CSPHs are a per-pixel compressive representation of the high-resolution histogram, that is built on-the-fly, as each photon is detected. They are based on a family of linear coding schemes that can be expressed as a simple matrix operation. We design different CSPH coding schemes for 3D imaging and evaluate them under different signal and background levels, laser waveforms, and illumination setups. Our results show that a well-designed CSPH can consistently reduce data rates by 1–2 orders of magnitude without compromising depth precision. Felipe Gutierrez-Barragan, Atul Ingle, Trevor Seets, Mohit Gupta 0001, Andreas Velten |
CVPR | 5 |
| 2022 | Single-Photon Camera Guided Extreme Dynamic Range ImagingabstractReconstruction of high-resolution extreme dynamic range images from a small number of low dynamic range (LDR) images is crucial for many computer vision applications. Current high dynamic range (HDR) cameras based on CMOS image sensor technology rely on multi-exposure bracketing which suffers from motion artifacts and signal-to-noise (SNR) dip artifacts in extreme dynamic range scenes. Recently, single-photon cameras (SPCs) have been shown to achieve orders of magnitude higher dynamic range for passive imaging than conventional CMOS sensors. SPCs are becoming increasingly available commercially, even in some consumer devices. Unfortunately, current SPCs suffer from low spatial resolution. To overcome the limitations of CMOS and SPC sensors, we propose a learning-based CMOS-SPC fusion method to recover high-resolution extreme dynamic range images. We compare the performance of our method against various traditional and state-of-the-art baselines using both synthetic and experimental data. Our method outperforms these baselines, both in terms of visual quality and quantitative metrics. Yuhao Liu 0012, Felipe Gutierrez-Barragan, Atul Ingle, Mohit Gupta 0001, Andreas Velten |
WACV | 5 |
| 2022 | Ring and Radius Sampling Based Phasor Field Diffraction Algorithm for Non-Line-of-Sight ReconstructionabstractNon-Line-of-Sight (NLOS) imaging reconstructs occluded scenes based on indirect diffuse reflections. The computational complexity and memory consumption of existing NLOS reconstruction algorithms make them challenging to be implemented in real-time. This paper presents a fast and memory-efficient phasor field-diffraction-based NLOS reconstruction algorithm. In the proposed algorithm, the radial property of the Rayleigh Sommerfeld diffraction (RSD) kernels along with the linear property of Fourier transform are utilized to reconstruct the Fourier domain representations of RSD kernels using a set of kernel bases. Moreover, memory consumption is further reduced by sampling the kernel bases in a radius direction and constructing them during the run-time. According to the analysis, the memory efficiency can be improved by as much as 220×. Experimental results show that compared with the original RSD algorithm, the reconstruction time of the proposed algorithm is significantly reduced with little impact on the final imaging quality. Deyang Jiang, Xiaochun Liu, Jianwen Luo 0004, Zhengpeng Liao, Andreas Velten, Xin Lou 0001 |
IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. | 5 |
| 2022 | FPGA Accelerator for Real-Time Non-Line-of-Sight ImagingabstractNon-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging systems reconstruct hidden scenes using computational methods based on indirect light that diffusely reflected from relay walls. Due to the computation and memory requirements of reconstruction algorithms, real-time NLOS imaging for room-size scenes based on non-confocal data has long been challenging. This paper proposes a field programmable gate array (FPGA) accelerator for the recently proposed Rayleigh-Sommerfeld Diffraction (RSD)-based NLOS reconstruction method. In the proposed accelerator design, ring sampling and radius sampling techniques are proposed to reduce the memory requirements by reconstructing the RSD kernels with a set of kernel bases and ring sampling coefficients during the runtime. Based on that, a customized hardware architecture and the corresponding FPGA design for real-time RSD-based NLOS reconstruction is further proposed. Implementation results show that the proposed FPGA accelerator is capable of reconstructing NLOS scenes at 25 frames per second (FPS), running at a relatively slow clock frequency of 50 MHz. To the best knowledge of the authors, this is the first real-time enabled FPGA accelerator for room-size NLOS imaging with a resolution of$128\times 128$. Zhengpeng Liao, Deyang Jiang, Xiaochun Liu, Andreas Velten, Yajun Ha, Xin Lou 0001 |
IEEE Trans. Circuits Syst. I Regul. Pap. | 4 |
| 2021 | Passive Inter-Photon ImagingabstractDigital camera pixels measure image intensities by converting incident light energy into an analog electrical current, and then digitizing it into a fixed-width binary representation. This direct measurement method, while conceptually simple, suffers from limited dynamic range and poor performance under extreme illumination — electronic noise dominates under low illumination, and pixel full-well capacity results in saturation under bright illumination. We propose a novel intensity cue based on measuring inter-photon timing, defined as the time delay between detection of successive photons. Based on the statistics of inter-photon times measured by a time-resolved single-photon sensor, we develop theory and algorithms for a scene brightness estimator which works over extreme dynamic range; we experimentally demonstrate imaging scenes with a dynamic range of over ten million to one. The proposed techniques, aided by the emergence of single-photon sensors such as single-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) with picosecond timing resolution, will have implications for a wide range of imaging applications: robotics, consumer photography, astronomy, microscopy and biomedical imaging. Atul Ingle, Trevor Seets, Mauro Buttafava, Alberto Tosi, Mohit Gupta 0001, Andreas Velten |
CVPR | 7 |
| 2021 | Virtual light transport matrices for non-line-of-sight imagingabstractThe light transport matrix (LTM) is an instrumental tool in line-of-sight (LOS) imaging, describing how light interacts with the scene and enabling applications such as relighting or separation of illumination components. We introduce a framework to estimate the LTM of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) scenarios, coupling recent virtual forward light propagation models for NLOS imaging with the LOS light transport equation. We design computational projector-camera setups, and use these virtual imaging systems to estimate the transport matrix of hidden scenes. We introduce the specific illumination functions to compute the different elements of the matrix, overcoming the challenging wide-aperture conditions of NLOS setups. Our NLOS light transport matrix allows us to (re)illuminate specific locations of a hidden scene, and separate direct, first-order indirect, and higher-order indirect illumination of complex cluttered hidden scenes, similar to existing LOS techniques. Julio Marco, Adrián Jarabo, Ji Hyun Nam, Xiaochun Liu, Miguel Ángel Cosculluela, Andreas Velten, Diego Gutierrez |
ICCV | 6 |
| 2021 | Motion Adaptive Deblurring with Single-Photon CamerasabstractSingle-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are a rapidly developing image sensing technology with extreme low-light sensitivity and picosecond timing resolution. These unique capabilities have enabled SPADs to be used in applications like LiDAR, non-line-of-sight imaging and fluorescence microscopy that require imaging in photon-starved scenarios. In this work we harness these capabilities for dealing with motion blur in a passive imaging setting in low illumination conditions. Our key insight is that the data captured by a SPAD array camera can be represented as a 3D spatio-temporal tensor of photon detection events which can be integrated along arbitrary spatio-temporal trajectories with dynamically varying integration windows, depending on scene motion. We propose an algorithm that estimates pixel motion from photon timestamp data and dynamically adapts the integration windows to minimize motion blur. Our simulation results show the applicability of this algorithm to a variety of motion profiles including translation, rotation and local object motion. We also demonstrate the real-world feasibility of our method on data captured using a 32 × 32 SPAD camera. Trevor Seets, Atul Ingle, Martin Laurenzis, Andreas Velten |
WACV | 4 |
| 2020 | On the Effect of Reflectance on Phasor Field Non-Line-of-Sight ImagingabstractNon-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging aims to visualize occluded scenes by exploiting indirect reflections on visible surfaces. Previous methods approach this problem by inverting the light transport on the hidden scene, but are limited to isolated, diffuse objects. The recently introduced phasor fields framework computationally poses NLOS reconstruction as a virtual line-of-sight (LOS) problem, lifting most assumptions about the hidden scene. In this work we complement recent theoretical analysis of phasor field-based reconstruction, by empirically analyzing the effect of reflectance of the hidden scenes on reconstruction. We experimentally study the reconstruction of hidden scenes composed of objects with increasingly specular materials. Then, we evaluate the effect of the virtual aperture size on the reconstruction, and establish connections between the effect of these two different dimensions on the results. We hope our analysis helps to characterize the imaging capabilities of this promising new framework, and foster new NLOS imaging modalities. Ibón Guillén, Xiaochun Liu, Andreas Velten, Diego Gutierrez, Adrián Jarabo |
ICASSP | 3 |
| 2020 | The role of Wigner Distribution Function in Non-Line-of-Sight ImagingabstractNon-Line-of-Sight imaging has been linked to wave diffraction by the recent phasor field method. In wave optics, the Wigner Distribution Function description for an optical imaging system is a powerful analytical tool for modeling the imaging process with geometrical transformations. In this paper, we focus on illustrating the relation between captured signals and hidden objects in the Wigner Distribution domain. The Wigner Distribution Function is usually used together with approximated diffraction propagators, which is fine for most imaging problems. However, these approximated diffraction propagators are not valid for Non-Line-of-Sight imaging scenarios. We show that the exact phasor field propagator (Rayleigh-Sommerfeld Diffraction) does not have a standard geometrical transformation, as compared to approximated diffraction propagators (Fresnel, Fraunhofer diffraction) that can be represented as shearing or rotation in the Wigner Distribution Function domain. Then, we explore differences between the exact and approximated solutions by characterizing errors made in different spatial positions and acquisition methods (confocal, non-confocal scanning). We derive a lateral resolution based on the exact phasor field propagator, which can be used as a reference for theoretical evaluations and comparisons. For targets that lie laterally outside a relay wall, the loss of resolution is geometrically illustrated in the context of the Wigner Distribution Function. Xiaochun Liu, Andreas Velten |
ICCP | 2 |
| 2019 | Photon-Flooded Single-Photon 3D CamerasabstractSingle-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are starting to play a pivotal role in the development of photon-efficient, long-range LiDAR systems. However, due to non-linearities in their image formation model, a high photon flux (e.g., due to strong sunlight) leads to distortion of the incident temporal waveform, and potentially, large depth errors. Operating SPADs in low flux regimes can mitigate these distortions, but, often requires attenuating the signal and thus, results in low signal-to-noise ratio. In this paper, we address the following basic question: what is the optimal photon flux that a SPAD-based LiDAR should be operated in? We derive a closed form expression for the optimal flux, which is quasi-depth-invariant, and depends on the ambient light strength. The optimal flux is lower than what a SPAD typically measures in real world scenarios, but surprisingly, considerably higher than what is conventionally suggested for avoiding distortions. We propose a simple, adaptive approach for achieving the optimal flux by attenuating incident flux based on an estimate of ambient light strength. Using extensive simulations and a hardware prototype, we show that the optimal flux criterion holds for several depth estimators, under a wide range of illumination conditions. Anant Gupta, Atul Ingle, Andreas Velten, Mohit Gupta 0001 |
CVPR | 3 |
| 2019 | Practical Coding Function Design for Time-Of-Flight ImagingabstractThe depth resolution of a continuous-wave time-of-flight (CW-ToF) imaging system is determined by its coding functions. Recently, there has been growing interest in the design of new high-performance CW-ToF coding functions. However, these functions are typically designed in a hardware agnostic manner, i.e., without considering the practical device limitations, such as bandwidth, source power, digital (binary) function generation. Therefore, despite theoretical improvements, practical implementation of these functions remains a challenge. We present a constrained optimization approach for designing practical coding functions that adhere to hardware constraints. The optimization problem is non-convex with a large search space and no known globally optimal solutions. To make the problem tractable, we design an iterative, alternating least-squares algorithm, along with convex relaxation of the constraints. Using this approach, we design high-performance coding functions that can be implemented on existing hardware with minimal modifications. We demonstrate the performance benefits of the resulting functions via extensive simulations and a hardware prototype. Felipe Gutierrez-Barragan, Syed Azer Reza, Andreas Velten, Mohit Gupta 0001 |
CVPR | 3 |
| 2019 | High Flux Passive Imaging With Single-Photon SensorsabstractSingle-photon avalanche diodes (SPADs) are an emerging technology with a unique capability of capturing individual photons with high timing precision. SPADs are being used in several active imaging systems (e.g., fluorescence lifetime microscopy and LiDAR), albeit mostly limited to low photon flux settings. We propose passive free-running SPAD (PF-SPAD) imaging, an imaging modality that uses SPADs for capturing 2D intensity images with unprecedented dynamic range under ambient lighting, without any active light source. Our key observation is that the precise inter-photon timing measured by a SPAD can be used for estimating scene brightness under ambient lighting conditions, even for very bright scenes. We develop a theoretical model for PF-SPAD imaging, and derive a scene brightness estimator based on the average time of darkness between successive photons detected by a PF-SPAD pixel. Our key insight is that due to the stochastic nature of photon arrivals, this estimator does not suffer from a hard saturation limit. Coupled with high sensitivity at low flux, this enables a PF-SPAD pixel to measure a wide range of scene brightnesses, from very low to very high, thereby achieving extreme dynamic range. We demonstrate an improvement of over 2 orders of magnitude over conventional sensors by imaging scenes spanning a dynamic range of 10^6:1. Atul Ingle, Andreas Velten, Mohit Gupta 0001 |
CVPR | 2 |
| 2019 | Analysis of Feature Visibility in Non-Line-Of-Sight MeasurementsabstractWe formulate an equation describing a general Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging measurement and analyze the properties of the measurement in the Fourier domain regarding the spatial frequencies of the scene it encodes. We conclude that for a relay wall with finite size, certain scene configurations and features are not detectable in an NLOS measurement. We then provide experimental examples of invisible scene features and their reconstructions, as well as a set of example scenes that lead to an ill-posed NLOS imaging problem. Xiaochun Liu, Andreas Velten |
CVPR | 3 |
| 2019 | Error Backprojection Algorithms for Non-Line-of-Sight ImagingabstractRecent advances in computer vision and inverse light transport theory have resulted in several non-line-of-sight imaging techniques. These techniques use photon time-of-flight information encoded in light after multiple, diffuse reflections to reconstruct a three-dimensional scene. In this paper, we propose and describe two iterative backprojection algorithms, the additive error backprojection (AEB) and multiplicative error backprojection (MEB), whose goal is to improve the reconstruction of the scene under investigation over non-iterative backprojection algorithms. We evaluate the proposed algorithms' performance applied to simulated and real data (gathered from an experimental setup where the system needs to reconstruct an unknown scene). Results show that the proposed iterative algorithms are able to provide better reconstruction than the unfiltered, non-iterative backprojection algorithm for both simulated and physical scenes, but are more sensitive to errors in the light transport model. Marco La Manna, Fiona Kine, Eric Breitbach, Jonathan Jackson, Talha Sultan, Andreas Velten |
IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell. | 6 |
| 2019 | Coding Scheme Optimization for Fast Fluorescence Lifetime ImagingabstractFluorescence lifetime imaging (FLIM) is used for measuring material properties in a wide range of applications, including biology, medical imaging, chemistry, and material science. In frequency-domain FLIM (FD-FLIM), the object of interest is illuminated with a temporally modulated light source. The fluorescence lifetime is measured by computing the correlations of the emitted light with a demodulation function at the sensor. The signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and the acquisition time of a FD-FLIM system is determined by the coding scheme (modulation and demodulation functions). In this article, we develop theory and algorithms for designing high-performance FD-FLIM coding schemes that can achieve high SNR and short acquisition time, given a fixed source power budget. Based on a geometric analysis of the image formation and noise model, we propose a novel surrogate objective for the performance of a given coding scheme. The surrogate objective is extremely fast to compute, and can be used to efficiently explore the entire space of coding schemes. Based on this objective, we design novel, high-performance coding schemes that achieve up to an order of magnitude shorter acquisition time as compared to existing approaches. We demonstrate the performance advantage of the proposed schemes in a variety of imaging conditions, using a modular hardware prototype that can implement various coding schemes. Jongho Lee 0004, Jenu Varghese Chacko, Bing Dai, Syed Azer Reza, Abdul Kader Sagar, Kevin W. Eliceiri, Andreas Velten, Mohit Gupta 0001 |
ACM Trans. Graph. | 7 |
| 2018 | SH-ToF: Micro resolution time-of-flight imaging with superheterodyne interferometryabstractThree dimensional imaging techniques have been widely used in both industry and academia. Time-of-flight (ToF) sensors offer a promising method of 3D imaging due to compact size and low complexity. However, state-of-the-art ToF sensors only have depth resolutions of centimeters due to limitations in the modulation frequencies that can be used. In this paper, we propose a technique to generate modulation frequencies as high as 1 THz using optical superheterodyne interferometry. Our proposed system provides great flexibility in imaging range and resolution. We experimentally demonstrate an increase in depth resolution by an order of magnitude relative to currently available commercial ToF cameras. Fengqiang Li, Florian Willomitzer, Prasanna Rangarajan, Mohit Gupta 0001, Andreas Velten, Oliver Cossairt |
ICCP | 5 |
| 2018 | What Are Optimal Coding Functions for Time-of-Flight Imaging?abstractThe depth resolution achieved by a continuous wave time-of-flight (C-ToF) imaging system is determined by the coding (modulation and demodulation) functions that it uses. Almost all current C-ToF systems use sinusoid or square coding functions, resulting in a limited depth resolution. In this article, we present a mathematical framework for exploring and characterizing the space of C-ToF coding functions in a geometrically intuitive space. Using this framework, we design families of novel coding functions that are based on Hamiltonian cycles on hypercube graphs. Given a fixed total source power and acquisition time, the new Hamiltonian coding scheme can achieve up to an order of magnitude higher resolution as compared to the current state-of-the-art methods, especially in low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) settings. We also develop a comprehensive physically-motivated simulator for C-ToF cameras that can be used to evaluate various coding schemes prior to a real hardware implementation. Since most off-the-shelf C-ToF sensors use sinusoid or square functions, we develop a hardware prototype that can implement a wide range of coding functions. Using this prototype and our software simulator, we demonstrate the performance advantages of the proposed Hamiltonian coding functions in a wide range of imaging settings. Mohit Gupta 0001, Andreas Velten, Shree K. Nayar, Eric Breitbach |
ACM Trans. Graph. | 2 |
| 2015 | Relativistic Effects for Time-Resolved Light TransportabstractAbstract We present a real‐time framework which allows interactive visualization of relativistic effects for time‐resolved light transport. We leverage data from two different sources: real‐world data acquired with an effective exposure time of less than 2 picoseconds, using an ultra‐fast imaging technique termed femto‐photography, and a transient renderer based on ray‐tracing. We explore the effects of time dilation, light aberration, frequency shift and radiance accumulation by modifying existing models of these relativistic effects to take into account the time‐resolved nature of light propagation. Unlike previous works, we do not impose limiting constraints in the visualization, allowing the virtual camera to explore freely a reconstructed 3D scene depicting dynamic illumination. Moreover, we consider not only linear motion, but also acceleration and rotation of the camera. We further introduce, for the first time, a pinhole camera model into our relativistic rendering framework, and account for subsequent changes in focal length and field of view as the camera moves through the scene. Adrián Jarabo, Belén Masiá, Andreas Velten, Christopher Barsi, Ramesh Raskar, Diego Gutierrez |
Comput. Graph. Forum | 3 |
| 2014 | Decomposing Global Light Transport Using Time of Flight Imaging
Di Wu 0006, Andreas Velten, Matthew O'Toole, Belén Masiá, Amit K. Agrawal, Qionghai Dai, Ramesh Raskar |
Int. J. Comput. Vis. | 2 |
| 2013 | Femto-photography: capturing and visualizing the propagation of lightabstractWe present femto-photography , a novel imaging technique to capture and visualize the propagation of light. With an effective exposure time of 1.85 picoseconds (ps) per frame, we reconstruct movies of ultrafast events at an equivalent resolution of about one half trillion frames per second. Because cameras with this shutter speed do not exist, we re-purpose modern imaging hardware to record an ensemble average of repeatable events that are synchronized to a streak sensor, in which the time of arrival of light from the scene is coded in one of the sensor's spatial dimensions. We introduce reconstruction methods that allow us to visualize the propagation of femtosecond light pulses through macroscopic scenes; at such fast resolution, we must consider the notion of time-unwarping between the camera's and the world's space-time coordinate systems to take into account effects associated with the finite speed of light. We apply our femto-photography technique to visualizations of very different scenes, which allow us to observe the rich dynamics of time-resolved light transport effects, including scattering, specular reflections, diffuse interreflections, diffraction, caustics, and subsurface scattering. Our work has potential applications in artistic, educational, and scientific visualizations; industrial imaging to analyze material properties; and medical imaging to reconstruct subsurface elements. In addition, our time-resolved technique may motivate new forms of computational photography. Andreas Velten, Di Wu 0006, Adrián Jarabo, Belén Masiá, Christopher Barsi, Chinmaya Joshi, Everett Lawson, Moungi Bawendi, Diego Gutierrez, Ramesh Raskar |
ACM Trans. Graph. | 1 |
| 2012 | Decomposing global light transport using time of flight imagingabstractGlobal light transport is composed of direct and indirect components. In this paper, we take the first steps toward analyzing light transport using high temporal resolution information via time of flight (ToF) images. The time profile at each pixel encodes complex interactions between the incident light and the scene geometry with spatially-varying material properties. We exploit the time profile to decompose light transport into its constituent direct, subsurface scattering, and interreflection components. We show that the time profile is well modelled using a Gaussian function for the direct and interreflection components, and a decaying exponential function for the subsurface scattering component. We use our direct, subsurface scattering, and interreflection separation algorithm for four computer vision applications: recovering projective depth maps, identifying subsurface scattering objects, measuring parameters of analytical subsurface scattering models, and performing edge detection using ToF images. Di Wu 0006, Matthew O'Toole, Andreas Velten, Amit K. Agrawal, Ramesh Raskar |
CVPR | 3 |
| 2011 | Estimating Motion and size of moving non-line-of-sight objects in cluttered environmentsabstractWe present a technique for motion and size estimation of non-line-of-sight (NLOS) moving objects in cluttered environments using a time of flight camera and multipath analysis. We exploit relative times of arrival after reflection from a grid of points on a diffuse surface and create a virtual phased-array. By subtracting space-time impulse responses for successive frames, we separate responses of NLOS moving objects from those resulting from the cluttered environment. After reconstructing the line-of-sight scene geometry, we analyze the space of wavefronts using the phased array and solve a constrained least squares problem to recover the NLOS target location. Importantly, we can recover target's motion vector even in presence of uncalibrated time and pose bias common in time of flight systems. In addition, we compute the upper bound on the size of the target by backprojecting the extremas of the time profiles. Ability to track targets inside rooms despite opaque occluders and multipath responses has numerous applications in search and rescue, medicine and defense. We show centimeter accurate results by making appropriate modifications to a time of flight system. Rohit Pandharkar, Andreas Velten, Andrew Bardagjy, Everett Lawson, Moungi Bawendi, Ramesh Raskar |
CVPR | 2 |
| 2011 | Single view reflectance capture using multiplexed scattering and time-of-flight imagingabstractThis paper introduces the concept of time-of-flight reflectance estimation, and demonstrates a new technique that allows a camera to rapidly acquire reflectance properties of objects from a single view-point, over relatively long distances and without encircling equipment. We measure material properties by indirectly illuminating an object by a laser source, and observing its reflected light indirectly using a time-of-flight camera. The configuration collectively acquires dense angular, but low spatial sampling, within a limited solid angle range - all from a single viewpoint. Our ultra-fast imaging approach captures space-time "streak images" that can separate out different bounces of light based on path length. Entanglements arise in the streak images mixing signals from multiple paths if they have the same total path length. We show how reflectances can be recovered by solving for a linear system of equations and assuming parametric material models; fitting to lower dimensional reflectance models enables us to disentangle measurements. We demonstrate proof-of-concept results of parametric reflectance models for homogeneous and discretized heterogeneous patches, both using simulation and experimental hardware. As compared to lengthy or highly calibrated BRDF acquisition techniques, we demonstrate a device that can rapidly, on the order of seconds, capture meaningful reflectance information. We expect hardware advances to improve the portability and speed of this device. Nikhil Naik 0003, Andreas Velten, Ramesh Raskar, Kavita Bala |
ACM Trans. Graph. | 3 |