The Portland State University was awarded a $199,244 Project Grant from the National Science Foundation Division of Electrical, Communications and Cyber Systems Engineering program to develop bandwidth-efficient photon data capture and processing techniques for single-photon avalanche diode cameras. The goal is to enable megapixel and higher resolution SPAD cameras by addressing the data bandwidth challenge through hardware and algorithmic reconfigurability of the SPAD pixel array. The university will establish a theoretical foundation for tradeoffs in SPAD camera image quality and output data rates under varying illumination levels and pixel specifications. It will also design statistical and data-driven compression techniques to summarize photon data streams into a minimal form that retains all information needed for high quality intensity and depth reconstructions but with significantly lower bandwidth requirements. Experimental prototypes using commercially available SPAD camera hardware will evaluate performance and demonstrate on-chip implementation feasibility of the algorithms to help realize high spatial resolution SPAD cameras for passive intensity imaging and active time-of-flight depth sensing. Outreach activities are also planned. The two-year project was awarded on February 15, 2022 under the NSF Engineering program (CFDA 47.041).
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