1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices, methods, and systems of coded images. More particularly, an aspect of the present invention relates to lensless imaging and to spatially coded imaging.
2. Brief Description of Prior Developments
Fixed (non-programmable) coded-aperture technology and programmable masks realized with Spatial Light Modulators were heretofore known in the art. The SLM elements are controlled so that the modulated transmission forms an aperture mask, encoding the image with a programmable function. The goal of decoding is to use knowledge of the aperture mask programmed with the programmable function to recover the object scene from the encoded image.
Information-theoretic analyses had identified two such classes of programmable masks used in association with recovering an object scene from an encoded image. The two classes are Uniformly Redundant Arrays (URAs) and Modified URAs (MURAs). Each may be used during the decoding process, however each has some drawbacks. A need therefore exists for an improved method for spatial decoding.