Single photon counting 3D imaging implemented under signal-to-noise ratio less than one

Yan Kang; Tongyi Zhang; Lifei Li; Biao Wang; Wei Zhao

doi:10.1117/12.2549971

20 December 2019 Single photon counting 3D imaging implemented under signal-to-noise ratio less than one

Yan Kang, Tongyi Zhang, Lifei Li, Biao Wang, Wei Zhao

Proceedings Volume 11209, Eleventh International Conference on Information Optics and Photonics (CIOP 2019); 112094Z (2019) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2549971
Event: Eleventh International Conference on Information Optics and Photonics (CIOP 2019), 2019, Xi'an, China

Abstract

We report a five-step processing algorithm for photon counting depth imaging under strong background noise environment, and experimentally verified that this method can realize single photon counting 3D imaging under signalto-noise ratio (SNR) less than 1. In order to accurately locate the target position when the ambient flux is high, a computational pile-up correction is performed to recover the underlying signal photons, then performing an adaptively full-pixel target position locating. After the target position is determined, the signal and noise photons are separated pixel-wisely using a cluster method. Pixels which have no arrival photons are filled by using the information from neighborhood. At last, by using total variation spatial regularization, the depth images are reconstructed accurately. To validate the proposed method, a single photon counting 3D imaging system is established and experiments at different noise levels are carried out. Experimental results show that accurate depth imaging can be reconstructed with the SNR as low as 0.41. This approach is suitable for depth imaging under high background noise and also very suitable for the noncooperative target imaging with no prior knowledge of the target distance for its adaptive range gating.

Citation Download Citation

Yan Kang, Tongyi Zhang, Lifei Li, Biao Wang, and Wei Zhao "Single photon counting 3D imaging implemented under signal-to-noise ratio less than one", Proc. SPIE 11209, Eleventh International Conference on Information Optics and Photonics (CIOP 2019), 112094Z (20 December 2019); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.2549971

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available