Smart Flexible Camera Sheet- Ultra-thin Semantic-guided Cooperative Micro-camera Array

Abstract: This highly interdisciplinary research addresses two fundamental challenges in image sensing and image understanding: 1) versatile camera systems in a small form factor, and 2) 3-dimensional scene and object recognition from 2-dimensional photos. These fundamental challenges are tackled together by developing a cyber-physical imaging system, called a smart flexible camera sheet, which integrates an array of many micro-cameras (each millimeters in size) onto a thin substrate. The substrate has a flexible geometric shape and the orientation of each camera is individually adjusted and controlled in real time via intelligent algorithms. The overall imaging system is ultra-thin and space-efficient, and can be easily mounted onto or embedded into any planar or curved surface. Hence it opens up a plethora of new civilian and military applications where surveillance and visual monitoring are required, thus bearing great commercialization potential. Examples of applications include: smart vehicles, smart transportation, highway safety, smart civil infrastructure, manufacturing lines, battlefield surveillance and reconnaissance, sensor networks, mobile robotics, medical facilities, and patient care.

We report new progress in the development of a tunable, electrowetting lens array for use in our camera sheet as well as work on liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) microactuators to be used for image tracking. Additionally, we report a multi-view image denoising algorithm based on a data structure called 3D focus image stacks with robust disparity estimation and CNN-based denoising.

Explanation of Demonstration: We will demonstrate a prototype of a camera sheet, a thin, flexible sheet with multiple integrated miniature cameras, as well as a video show its operation principle.