Three Dimensional Passive Image Sensing and Visualization

Three dimensional optical image sensing and visualization technologies have been researched extensively for different applications in fields as diverse as entertainment, medical sciences, robotics, manufacturing, and defense. In many instances, the capabilities of 3D imaging and display systems have revolutionized the progress of these disciplines, enabling new sensing and visualization abilities that would not have been otherwise possible. As one of the promising methods in the area of 3D sensing and visualization, integral imaging offers passive and relatively inexpensive way to capture 3D information and to visualize it optically or numerically. The integral imaging technique belongs to the broader class of multi-view imaging techniques and is based on a century old principle which has only been resurrected in the past decade owing to advancement of optoelectronic image sensors as well as the exponential increase in computing power. In this thesis, historic and physical foundations of integral imaging are overviewed; different optical pickup and visualization schemes, optimization of system parameters and performance metrics, computational reconstruction methods for several applications including on and off axis 3D underwater imaging, 3D objects under photon starved condition, and tracking of heavily occluded 3D objects are presented.