MERL - Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories

Share:

Computational Sensing

Utilizing computation to improve sensing capabilities.

Our research in the area of computational sensing focuses on signal acquisition and design, signal modeling and reconstruction algorithms, including inverse problems, as well as array signal processing techniques.

  • Quick Links

  • Researchers

  • Awards

    •  AWARD   Petros Boufounos Elevated to IEEE Fellow
      Date: January 1, 2022
      Awarded to: Petros T. Boufounos
      MERL Contact: Petros T. Boufounos
      Research Areas: Computational Sensing, Signal Processing
      Brief
      • MERL’s Petros Boufounos has been elevated to IEEE Fellow, effective January 2022, for “contributions to compressed sensing.”

        IEEE Fellow is the highest grade of membership of the IEEE. It honors members with an outstanding record of technical achievements, contributing importantly to the advancement or application of engineering, science and technology, and bringing significant value to society. Each year, following a rigorous evaluation procedure, the IEEE Fellow Committee recommends a select group of recipients for elevation to IEEE Fellow. Less than 0.1% of voting members are selected annually for this member grade elevation.
    •  
    •  AWARD   2015 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award
      Date: December 1, 2015
      Awarded to: Mark A. Davenport, Petros T. Boufounos, Michael B. Wakin and Richard G. Baraniuk
      MERL Contact: Petros T. Boufounos
      Research Area: Computational Sensing
      Brief
      • Petros Boufounos is a recipient of the 2015 IEEE Signal Processing Society Best Paper Award for the paper that he co-authored with Mark A. Davenport, Michael B. Wakin and Richard G. Baraniuk on "Signal Processing with Compressive Measurements" which was published in the April 2010 issue of IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing. The Best Paper Award honors the author(s) of a paper of exceptional merit dealing with a subject related to the Society's technical scope, and appearing in one of the Society's solely owned transactions or the Journal of Selected Topics in Signal Processing. Eligibility is based on a five-year window: for example, for the 2015 Award, the paper must have appeared in one of the Society's Transactions between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2014.
        .
    •  
    •  AWARD   GRSS 2014 Symposium Prize Paper Award
      Date: May 1, 2014
      Awarded to: Dehong Liu and Petros T. Boufounos
      Awarded for: "Synthetic Aperture Imaging Using a Randomly Steered Spotlight"
      Awarded by: IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society (GRSS)
      MERL Contacts: Dehong Liu; Petros T. Boufounos
      Research Area: Computational Sensing
      Brief
      • Dehong Liu and Petros T. Boufounos are the recipients of the the IEEE Geoscience and Remote Sensing Society 2014 Symposium Prize Paper Award for their paper "Synthetic Aperture Imaging Using a Randomly Steered Spotlight," presented at IGARSS 2013 (TR2013-070).
    •  

    See All Awards for Computational Sensing

  • News & Events

    •  EVENT   Prof. Melanie Zeilinger of ETH to give keynote at MERL's Virtual Open House
      Date & Time: Thursday, December 9, 2021; 1:00pm - 5:30pm EST
      Speaker: Prof. Melanie Zeilinger, ETH
      Location: Virtual Event
      Research Areas: Applied Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Communications, Computational Sensing, Computer Vision, Control, Data Analytics, Dynamical Systems, Electric Systems, Electronic and Photonic Devices, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, Robotics, Signal Processing, Speech & Audio, Digital Video, Human-Computer Interaction, Information Security
      Brief
      • MERL is excited to announce the second keynote speaker for our Virtual Open House 2021:
        Prof. Melanie Zeilinger from ETH .

        Our virtual open house will take place on December 9, 2021, 1:00pm - 5:30pm (EST).

        Join us to learn more about who we are, what we do, and discuss our internship and employment opportunities. Prof. Zeilinger's talk is scheduled for 3:15pm - 3:45pm (EST).

        Registration: https://mailchi.mp/merl/merlvoh2021

        Keynote Title: Control Meets Learning - On Performance, Safety and User Interaction

        Abstract: With increasing sensing and communication capabilities, physical systems today are becoming one of the largest generators of data, making learning a central component of autonomous control systems. While this paradigm shift offers tremendous opportunities to address new levels of system complexity, variability and user interaction, it also raises fundamental questions of learning in a closed-loop dynamical control system. In this talk, I will present some of our recent results showing how even safety-critical systems can leverage the potential of data. I will first briefly present concepts for using learning for automatic controller design and for a new safety framework that can equip any learning-based controller with safety guarantees. The second part will then discuss how expert and user information can be utilized to optimize system performance, where I will particularly highlight an approach developed together with MERL for personalizing the motion planning in autonomous driving to the individual driving style of a passenger.
    •  
    •  EVENT   Prof. Ashok Veeraraghavan of Rice University to give keynote at MERL's Virtual Open House
      Date & Time: Thursday, December 9, 2021; 1:00pm - 5:30pm EST
      Speaker: Prof. Ashok Veeraraghavan, Rice University
      Location: Virtual Event
      Research Areas: Applied Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Communications, Computational Sensing, Computer Vision, Control, Data Analytics, Dynamical Systems, Electric Systems, Electronic and Photonic Devices, Machine Learning, Multi-Physical Modeling, Optimization, Robotics, Signal Processing, Speech & Audio, Digital Video, Human-Computer Interaction, Information Security
      Brief
      • MERL is excited to announce the first keynote speaker for our Virtual Open House 2021:
        Prof. Ashok Veeraraghavan from Rice University.

        Our virtual open house will take place on December 9, 2021, 1:00pm - 5:30pm (EST).

        Join us to learn more about who we are, what we do, and discuss our internship and employment opportunities. Prof. Veeraraghavan's talk is scheduled for 1:15pm - 1:45pm (EST).

        Registration: https://mailchi.mp/merl/merlvoh2021

        Keynote Title: Computational Imaging: Beyond the limits imposed by lenses.

        Abstract: The lens has long been a central element of cameras, since its early use in the mid-nineteenth century by Niepce, Talbot, and Daguerre. The role of the lens, from the Daguerrotype to modern digital cameras, is to refract light to achieve a one-to-one mapping between a point in the scene and a point on the sensor. This effect enables the sensor to compute a particular two-dimensional (2D) integral of the incident 4D light-field. We propose a radical departure from this practice and the many limitations it imposes. In the talk we focus on two inter-related research projects that attempt to go beyond lens-based imaging.

        First, we discuss our lab’s recent efforts to build flat, extremely thin imaging devices by replacing the lens in a conventional camera with an amplitude mask and computational reconstruction algorithms. These lensless cameras, called FlatCams can be less than a millimeter in thickness and enable applications where size, weight, thickness or cost are the driving factors. Second, we discuss high-resolution, long-distance imaging using Fourier Ptychography, where the need for a large aperture aberration corrected lens is replaced by a camera array and associated phase retrieval algorithms resulting again in order of magnitude reductions in size, weight and cost. Finally, I will spend a few minutes discussing how the wholistic computational imaging approach can be used to create ultra-high-resolution wavefront sensors.
    •  

    See All News & Events for Computational Sensing

  • Research Highlights

  • Internships

    • SP1750: THz (Terahertz) Sensing

      The Signal Processing (SP) group at MERL is seeking a highly motivated intern to conduct fundamental research in THz (Terahertz) sensing. Expertise in statistical inference, unsupervised anomaly detection, and deep learning (spatial-temporal representation learning) is required. Previous hands-on experience in THz data analysis is a plus. Familiarity with python and deep learning libraries is a must. The intern will collaborate with a small group of MERL researchers to develop novel algorithms, design experiments with collaborators, and prepare results for patents and publication. The expected duration of the internship is 3 months with a flexible start date. This internship requires work that can only be done at MERL.

    • SP1748: Learning-based Wireless Sensing

      The Signal Processing (SP) group at MERL is seeking a highly motivated intern to conduct fundamental research in learning-based wireless sensing using communication signals (e.g., Wi-Fi) and other RF signals (such as millimeter-wave sensing waveforms). Expertise in deep learning in one of the following areas: localization, occupancy sensing, device-free pose/gesture recognition, skeleton tracking, and multi-modal fusion, is highly preferred. Familiarity with IEEE 802.11 (g/n/ac/ad/ay)standards is a plus. Familiarity with python and deep learning libraries is a must. The intern will collaborate with a small group of MERL researchers to develop novel algorithms, design experiments using MERL in-house testbed, and prepare results for publication. The expected duration of the internship is 3 months with a flexible start date. This internship requires work that can only be done at MERL.

    • SP1753: Algorithms for Coherent Imaging Systems

      MERL is seeking an intern to work on estimation algorithms for coherent optical imaging. The ideal candidate would be a senior PhD student working in coherent imaging. The candidate should have experience in statistical modeling and estimation.

      A detailed knowledge of optical interferometry and imaging with a focus on either optical coherence tomography, optical coherence microscopy or FMCW LIDAR is also preferred. Strong programming skills in MATLAB or Python are essential. Publication of the results produced during our internships is expected. Duration is anticipated to be 3 to 6 months. This internship is preferred to be onsite at MERL, but may be done remotely where you live if the COVID pandemic makes it necessary.


    See All Internships for Computational Sensing

  • Recent Publications

    •  Wang, P., Koike-Akino, T., Ma, R., Orlik, P.V., Yamashita, G., Tsujita, W., Nakajima, M., "Learning-Based THz Multi-Layer Imaging for High-Capacity Positioning", International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz), DOI: 10.1109/​IRMMW-THz50926.2021.9566940, November 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-098 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Wang2021nov,
      • author = {Wang, Perry and Koike-Akino, Toshiaki and Ma, Rui and Orlik, Philip V. and Yamashita, Genki and Tsujita, Wataru and Nakajima, M.},
      • title = {Learning-Based THz Multi-Layer Imaging for High-Capacity Positioning},
      • booktitle = {International Conference on Infrared, Millimeter, and Terahertz Waves (IRMMW-THz)},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = nov,
      • publisher = {IEEE},
      • doi = {10.1109/IRMMW-THz50926.2021.9566940},
      • issn = {2162-2035},
      • isbn = {978-1-7281-9424-0},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-098}
      • }
    •  Yao, G., WANG, P., Berntorp, K., Mansour, H., Boufounos, P.T., Orlik, P.V., "Extended Object Tracking with Spatial Model Adaptation Using Automotive Radar", International Conference on Information Fusion (FUSION), November 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-138 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Yao2021nov,
      • author = {Yao, Gang and WANG, PU and Berntorp, Karl and Mansour, Hassan and Boufounos, Petros T. and Orlik, Philip V.},
      • title = {Extended Object Tracking with Spatial Model Adaptation Using Automotive Radar},
      • booktitle = {International Conference on Information Fusion (FUSION)},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = nov,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-138}
      • }
    •  Shi, L., Liu, D., Thornton, J.E., "Robust Camera Pose Estimation for Image Stitching", IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP), DOI: 10.1109/​ICIP42928.2021.9506680, September 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-113 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Shi2021sep,
      • author = {Shi, Laixi and Liu, Dehong and Thornton, Jay E.},
      • title = {Robust Camera Pose Estimation for Image Stitching},
      • booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Image Processing (ICIP)},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = sep,
      • publisher = {IEEE},
      • doi = {10.1109/ICIP42928.2021.9506680},
      • isbn = {978-1-6654-4115-5},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-113}
      • }
    •  Jain, S., Corcodel, R., van Baar, J., "Visual 3D Perception for Interactive Robotic Tactile Data Acquisition", IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE 2021), August 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-092 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Jain2021aug,
      • author = {Jain, Siddarth and Corcodel, Radu and van Baar, Jeroen},
      • title = {Visual 3D Perception for Interactive Robotic Tactile Data Acquisition},
      • booktitle = {2021 IEEE International Conference on Automation Science and Engineering (CASE)},
      • year = 2021,
      • month = aug,
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-092}
      • }
    •  Ma, Y., Boufounos, P.T., Mansour, H., Aeron, S., "Multiview Sensing with Unknown Permutations: An Optimal Transport Approach", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), DOI: 10.1109/​ICASSP39728.2021.9415075, June 2021, pp. 1440-1444.
      BibTeX TR2021-047 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Ma2021jun,
      • author = {Ma, Yanting and Boufounos, Petros T. and Mansour, Hassan and Aeron, Shuchin},
      • title = {Multiview Sensing with Unknown Permutations: An Optimal Transport Approach},
      • booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP)},
      • year = 2021,
      • pages = {1440--1444},
      • month = jun,
      • doi = {10.1109/ICASSP39728.2021.9415075},
      • issn = {1520-6149},
      • isbn = {978-1-7281-7606-2},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-047}
      • }
    •  Hyder, R., Mansour, H., Ma, Y., Boufounos, P.T., Wang, P., "A Consensus Equilibrium Solution for Deep Image Prior Powered by Red", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), DOI: 10.1109/​ICASSP39728.2021.9414290, June 2021, pp. 1380-1384.
      BibTeX TR2021-046 PDF
      • @inproceedings{Hyder2021jun,
      • author = {Hyder, Rakib and Mansour, Hassan and Ma, Yanting and Boufounos, Petros T. and Wang, Perry},
      • title = {A Consensus Equilibrium Solution for Deep Image Prior Powered by Red},
      • booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP)},
      • year = 2021,
      • pages = {1380--1384},
      • month = jun,
      • doi = {10.1109/ICASSP39728.2021.9414290},
      • issn = {2379-190X},
      • isbn = {978-1-7281-7605-5},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-046}
      • }
    •  Yao, G., Wang, P., Berntorp, K., Mansour, H., Boufounos, P.T., Orlik, P.V., "Extended Object Tracking with Automotive Radar Using B-Spline Chained Ellipses Model", IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP), DOI: 10.1109/​ICASSP39728.2021.9415080, June 2021, pp. 8408-8412.
      BibTeX TR2021-048 PDF Video
      • @inproceedings{Yao2021jun,
      • author = {Yao, Gang and Wang, Perry and Berntorp, Karl and Mansour, Hassan and Boufounos, Petros T. and Orlik, Philip V.},
      • title = {Extended Object Tracking with Automotive Radar Using B-Spline Chained Ellipses Model},
      • booktitle = {IEEE International Conference on Acoustics, Speech, and Signal Processing (ICASSP)},
      • year = 2021,
      • pages = {8408--8412},
      • month = jun,
      • publisher = {IEEE},
      • doi = {10.1109/ICASSP39728.2021.9415080},
      • issn = {2379-190X},
      • isbn = {978-1-7281-7605-5},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-048}
      • }
    •  Kadu, A., Mansour, H., Boufounos, P.T., "High-Contrast Reflection Tomography with Total-Variation Constraints", IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging, DOI: 10.1109/​TCI.2020.3038171, Vol. 6, pp. 1523-1536, March 2021.
      BibTeX TR2021-013 PDF
      • @article{Kadu2021mar,
      • author = {Kadu, Ajinkya and Mansour, Hassan and Boufounos, Petros T.},
      • title = {High-Contrast Reflection Tomography with Total-Variation Constraints},
      • journal = {IEEE Transactions on Computational Imaging},
      • year = 2021,
      • volume = 6,
      • pages = {1523--1536},
      • month = mar,
      • doi = {10.1109/TCI.2020.3038171},
      • url = {https://www.merl.com/publications/TR2021-013}
      • }
    See All Publications for Computational Sensing

  • Videos