Distributed Optoelectronic Processing of Multidimensional Digital Imaging

Abstract : Radical improvements in electronic sensor and processor capabilities in the past decade have destabilized basic definitions of imaging in general and three-dimensional imaging in particular. Conventionally, imaging refers to analog focal or holographic systems that integrate information acquisition and processing. Increasingly aggressive digital processing, however, diminishes the processing role in the sensor head. Particularly in sensor arrays, there is often no need for a well-formed 'image' in analog space. The divide between digital and analog systems is particularly pronounced for multidimensional imaging. Holographic and stereoscopic sensors record the illusion of 3D scenes, but do not in fact construct 3D models. Tomographic and other 3D scene analysis schemes create true 3D digital models from sensor array data. In most cases, however, users do not demand and cannot process full 3D models.