Acta Photonica Sinica, Volume. 53, Issue 11, 1111001(2024)
Color Non-line-of-sight Imaging Based on Time-correlated Single Photon Counting
Non-Line-Of-Sight (NLOS) imaging is a special optical imaging technique. It refers to the technique of reconstructing an image of an object in the event of an occlusion between the imaging system and an object that cannot be directly observed. It is to collect and analyze the photon signal returned from the target through the intermediate surface (such as wall, floor, etc.), to realize the image reconstruction of the target scene. NLOS imaging can be divided into active and passive depending on whether an active illumination source is used or not. Passive NLOS imaging systems rely primarily on the object itself emitting light or reflecting ambient light for imaging. Active NLOS imaging systems generally use a laser source for active illumination, it can obtain 3D image of the NLOS target through collecting time-resolution photon data. With the development of semiconductor single-photon detectors, Single-Photon Avalanche Photodiode (SPAD) detectors have gradually been widely used in active NLOS imaging technology due to their advantages of single photon detection sensitivity and picosecond temporal resolution, small size and low power consumption. However, in previous studies, researchers always used single-wavelength laser source to illuminate, and the reconstructed images of the targets only provide grayscale information of the target. In this paper, we demonstrate a color NLOS imaging method based on Time-Correlated Single-Photon Counting (TCSPC) and multi-wavelength laser illumination. First, we built a NLOS imaging system using confocal optical path mode, adopt a SPAD detector and a picosecond multi-wavelength pulsed laser. Then, the phasor field virtual wave algorithm is used to reconstruct the data collected by the three wavelength channels of 620 nm±1.5 nm, 532 nm±1.5 nm and 485 nm±1.5 nm, respectively. Finally, the three images obtained through different wavelength channels are synthesized to obtain a color NLOS image. In the experiments, targets containing different color information were selected for color NLOS imaging verification. The emitting laser repetition rate was set to 9.73 MHz, and the average power of the three wavelength lasers of 620 nm, 532 nm, and 485 nm were 255.9 μW, 100.8 μW, and 179.7 μW, respectively. A Silicon SPAD with a time jitter of 40 ps was used for echo photon detection. A 45 cm×45 cm wooden board with white wallpaper on its surface was used as the intermediate wall. The intermediate wall was 1 m away from the NLOS imaging system, and the target was 0.2 m away from the intermediate wall. The laser beam was controlled to scan 20×20 pixels on the intermediate wall and the interval between scanning points is 2 cm. The single point scanning time is 20 s. Under the above experimental parameter settings, NLOS imaging was performed on two targets containing four colors of red, white, yellow, and orange. By analyzing the PSNR of the imaging results, it can be obtained that the PSNRs of the 620 nm channel, the 532 nm channel, the 485 nm channel, and the synthetic color NLOS image are 7.9 dB, 7.4 dB, 6.7 dB, and 9.2 dB, respectively. This proves that the complementary detection of the three wavelengths can be used to obtain color NLOS imaging results with enhanced image quality. In summary, our proposed color NLOS imaging method can reconstruct the color image of complex NLOS targets with white, red, yellow and orange color features. Meanwhile, the complementarity of multi-wavelength detection can restore the 3D NLOS image with more complete details, which further expands the information dimension of NLOS imaging technology. In the future, it is planned to design a beam splitting system for the back-end receiving optical path and increase the number of SPAD detectors to detect more wavelengths simultaneously, so as to achieve high-efficiency TCSPC color non-line-of-sight imaging.
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Weiwei LI, Tongyi ZHANG, Yan KANG, Ruikai XUE, Xiaofang WANG, Jintao LIANG, Lifei LI. Color Non-line-of-sight Imaging Based on Time-correlated Single Photon Counting[J]. Acta Photonica Sinica, 2024, 53(11): 1111001
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Received: Apr. 10, 2024
Accepted: May. 8, 2024
Published Online: Jan. 8, 2025
The Author Email: ZHANG Tongyi (tyzhang@opt.ac.cn), KANG Yan (kangyan@opt.ac.cn)