Focal plane array-based compressive imaging in medium wave infrared: modeling, implementation, and challenges

As a super-resolution imaging method, compressive imaging (CI) has become a research hotspot in recent years. However, most researchers focus on the visible light and near-infrared regime. Further, most experimental studies are confined to a single-pixel camera, and there are comparatively few reports of the experimental studies about CI in the field of focal plane array-based (FPA) CI in the medium-wave infrared (MWIR). This paper derives the system model for an FPA CI system, describes the generation process of DMD masks, and modifies the block-based compressive sensing algorithm to be applicable to the FPA CI system. Based on the actual FPA CI system in MWIR, high-resolution MWIR images are obtained from a low-resolution MWIR sensor, realizing 16 times MWIR image super-resolution. However, imaging quality is not as ideal as that in visible light FPA CI system because of the particularities of MWIR. We analyze the particularities of an FPA CI system in MWIR and provide suggestions on how to solve them to improve performance. This work could provide guidance for researchers to build an experimental FPA CI system in MWIR.