Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensing using spatial-temporal data from an event-based image sensor

An event-based image sensor works dramatically differently from the conventional frame-based image sensors in a way that it only responds to local brightness changes whereas its counterparts' output is a linear representation of the illumination over a fixed exposure time. The output of an event-based image sensor therefore is an asynchronous stream of spatial-temporal events data tagged with the location, timestamp and polarity of the triggered events. Compared to traditional frame-based image sensors, event-based image sensors have advantages of high temporal resolution, low latency, high dynamic range and low power consumption. Although event-based image sensors have been used in many computer vision, navigation and even space situation awareness applications, little work has been done to explore their applicability in the field of wavefront sensing. In this work, we present the integration of an event camera in a Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor and the usage of event data to determine spot displacement and wavefront estimation. We show that it can achieve the same functionality but with substantial speed and can operate in extremely low light conditions. This makes an event-based Shack-Hartmann wavefront sensor a preferable choice for adaptive optics systems where light budget is limited or high bandwidth is required.