Three dimensional visualization by photon counting computational Integral Imaging

In this paper, we present three dimensional (3D) object reconstruction using photon-counted elemental images acquired by a passive 3D Integral Imaging (II) system. The maximum likelihood (ML) estimator is derived to reconstruct the irradiance of the 3D scene pixels and the reliability of the estimator is described by confidence intervals. For applications in photon scarce environments, our proposed technique provides 3D reconstruction for better visualization as well as significant reduction in the computational burden and required bandwidth for transmission of integral images. The performance of the reconstruction is illustrated qualitatively and compared quantitatively with Peak to Signal to Noise Ratio (PSNR) criterion.