Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories

Why I Want a Gradient Camera

Citation:   Tumblin, J.; Agrawal, A.; Raskar, R., "Why I Want a Gradient Camera", IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR), ISSN: 1063-6919, Vol. 1, pp. 103-110, June 2005 (IEEE Xplore)
MERL Report:  TR2005-083

We propose a camera that measures static gradients instead of static intensities. Quantizing sensed intensity differences between adjacent pixel values permits an ordinary A/D converter to measure detailed high contrast (HDR) scenes. We measure alternating 'cliques' of sensors (small groups) that locally determine their own best exposure and reconstruct the image using a Poisson solver. This intrinsically differential design suppresses common-mode noise, hides and smoothes quantizaiton, and can correct for its own saturated sensors. Simulations demonstrate these capabilities in side-by-side comparisons.

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