A study of the use of CMOS vision systems for continuous, real-time 2D frequency domain measurements using digital phase sensitive techniques

This proposal aims to determine the feasibility and limitations of using CMOS imaging technology to perform frequency domain measurements on objects. CMOS cameras and imaging devices are commonly available and are used for capturing and displaying static and temporal images in a wide range of industrial and consumer applications. The same technolgy is also suitable for performing measurements on objects and materials in the frequency domain. Although the primary use of such devices are in machine vision and photography it is possible that they could be used as sensors in a range of industrial and medical imaging applications where frequency measurments can yield more information than data obtained in the temporal domain. Typical examples include time-of flight measurments, 3D contour measurements, laser profiling and flourescent tagging and assaying of biological materials. The latter example is used in many laboratories where testing of chemical species is being performed. This often requires the use of expensive cooled high-speed CCD cameras to capture the information in the time domain.It has been demonstrated by many scientists and engineers that it is often easier, more reliable and cheaper to extract such information in the frequency domain. The PI has been involved in recent EU research projects that have developed instruments using such techniques with a single optical sensor. This project aims to extend this work to a 2D array of sensors, enabling the technique to be used for imaging the object under test rather than providing a single-source measurement.The project will demonstrate that it is possible using existing imaging technology combined with the latest digital signal processing devices to build an instrument that can perform these 2D frequency measurments continuously and in real-time.It will also determine the limitations of the current devices and how the overall performance of the system could be improved to make it suitable for a wide range of measurement applications. This feasibility study will then be used as the basis for further research into improved architectures for continuous, real-time frequency based imaging systems.