Generative models based on deep neural networks are quite powerful in modelling natural image statistics. In particular, deep auto-regressive models provide state of the art performance, in terms of log likelihood scores, by modelling tractable densities over the image manifold. In this work, we employ a learned deep auto-regressive model as data prior for solving different inverse problems in computational imaging. We demonstrate how our approach can reconstruct images which have better pixel-level consistencies, as compared to the existing deep auto-encoder based approaches. We also show how randomly dropping the update of some pixels in every iteration helps in a better image reconstruction. We test our approach on three computational imaging setups: Single Pixel Camera, LiSens and FlatCam with real and simulated measurements. We obtain better reconstructions than the state-of-the-art methods for these problems, in terms of both perceptual quality and quantitative metrics such as PSNR and SSIM.
While deep learning methods have achieved state-of-the-art performance in many challenging inverse problems like image inpainting and super-resolution, they invariably involve problem-specific training of the networks. Under this approach, different problems require different networks. In scenarios where we need to solve a wide variety of problems, e.g., on a mobile camera, it is inefficient and costly to use these specially-trained networks. On the other hand, traditional methods using signal priors can be used in all linear inverse problems but often have worse performance on challenging tasks. In this work, we provide a middle ground between the two kinds of methods --- we propose a general framework to train a single deep neural network that solves arbitrary linear inverse problems. The proposed network acts as a proximal operator for an optimization algorithm and projects non-image signals onto the set of natural images defined by the decision boundary of a classifier. In our experiments, the proposed framework demonstrates superior performance over traditional methods using a wavelet sparsity prior and achieves comparable performance of specially-trained networks on tasks including compressive sensing and pixel-wise inpainting. The measurement rate of cameras that take spatially multiplexed measurements by using spatial light modulators (SLM) is often limited by the switching speed of the SLMs. This is especially true for single-pixel cameras where the photodetector operates at a rate that is many orders-of-magnitude greater than the SLM. We study the factors that determine the measurement rate for such spatial multiplexing cameras (SMC) and show that increasing the number of pixels in the device improves the measurement rate, but there is an optimum number of pixels (typically, few thousands) beyond which the measurement rate does not increase. This motivates the design of LiSens, a novel imaging architecture, that replaces the photodetector in the single-pixel camera with a 1D linear array or a line-sensor. We illustrate the optical architecture underlying LiSens, build a prototype, and demonstrate results of a range of indoor and outdoor scenes. LiSens delivers on the promise of SMCs: imaging at a megapixel resolution, at video rate, using an inexpensive low-resolution sensor. Reconstruction of signals from compressively sensed measurements is an ill-posed problem. In this paper, we leverage the recurrent generative model, RIDE, as an image prior for compressive image reconstruction. Recurrent networks can model long-range dependencies in images and hence are suitable to handle global multiplexing in reconstruction from compressive imaging. We perform MAP inference with RIDE using back-propagation to the inputs and projected gradient method. We propose an entropy thresholding based approach for preserving texture in images well. Our approach shows superior reconstructions compared to recent global reconstruction approaches like D-AMP and TVAL3 on both simulated and real data. FlatCam is a thin form-factor lensless camera that consists of a coded mask placed on top of a bare, conventional sensor array. Unlike a traditional, lens-based camera, where an image of the scene is directly recorded on the sensor pixels, each pixel in FlatCam records a linear combination of light from multiple scene elements. A computational algorithm is then used to demultiplex the recorded measurements and reconstruct an image of the scene. FlatCam is an instance of a coded aperture imaging system; however, unlike the vast majority of related work, we place the coded mask extremely close to the image sensor that enables thin and flat form-factor imaging devices. We employ a separable mask to ensure that both calibration and image reconstruction are scalable in terms of memory requirements and computational complexity. We demonstrate the potential of the FlatCam design using two prototypes: one at visible wavelengths and one at infrared wavelengths.