CPCI - Center of Photonics and Computational Imaging

Center of Photonics and Computational Imaging

The aim of the Computational Imaging and Processing in High Resolution (CIPHR)  project is to establish the Center of Photonics and Computational Imaging, a research unit within the University of Tartu (UTartu), that will become a world leader in Computational Imaging, a sub field of photonics. This center will connect already strong scientific fields in UTartu such as optics and spectroscopy, machine vision, remote sensing, electronics and informatics, and will enable them to thrive further by combining expertise and resources to investigate complex multidisciplinary problems.

Computational imaging is a rapidly evolving subfield of photonics, which has applications in microscopy, medicine, robotics, remote sensing and astronomy. The range of applications increases with advances in sensor technology, computer algorithms and on-board computing capacity. Computational imaging uses computational methods to enhance the image quality, resolution or add spatial dimension to the image beyond the physical or technical limits of the imaging system. By nature, the research is interdisciplinary, and embraces the extensive competence of the University of Tartu in optics, spectroscopy, mathematics, computer science and their applications. The field of computational imaging falls under photonics – an application-oriented science of light, which belongs to the Key Enabling Technologies of the European Commission.

Research Directions
1. Novel imaging technologies based on chaos
Chaos often gets a bad reputation in all areas of research and life. In the recent years, chaos has been used as a powerful tool to develop new imaging technologies and expand imaging characteristics beyond the conventional limits. Our research group aims to advance the field of imaging using chaos in amplitude, phase and polarization.
 2. Imaging through scattering media
Imaging through scattering media is a challenging task. At University of Tartu, we aim to develop technologies that enables seeing through scattering layers. Different approaches are currently being developed including applying special optical beams that are resilient to scattering as information carriers.
 
  3. Manufacturing of scattering lenses
Most of the holography technologies use active devices such as spatial light modulators to construct the optical system which is not only expensive but also makes the system bulky and heavy. At University of Tartu we are manufacturing passive scattering lenses that can modulate light along multiple dimensions and can effectively replace active devices which leads to the development of compact optical instruments.  
 

University of Tartu to develop photonics with a €2.5m grant from the European Union

University of Tartu researchers are embarking on an extensive five-year project, during which a Centre of Photonics and Computational Imaging (CPCI) will be established with a €2.5m ERA Chair grant from the European Commission. The new centre will bring together the university’s expertise in photonics and related fields, and will also include a newly formed research group led by a top-level computational imaging researcher. A call for this position has been announced already.