5D-fusion sensing via interference illumination and polarization imaging

Area of Science:

• Optics and Photonics
• Sensing Technology
• Image Analysis

Background:

• Accurate target detection relies on analyzing multiple physical parameters like spectrum, polarization, and 3D shape.
• Simultaneously acquiring these parameters (5D-fusion sensing) presents a significant challenge in current optical imaging.
• Existing methods often require separate devices and scanning processes for each parameter.

Purpose of the Study:

• To propose and verify a novel polychromatic interferometric illumination and polarimetric sensor-based imaging method.
• To achieve 5D-fusion sensing, integrating spectrum, polarization, and 3D shape information.
• To demonstrate the efficiency and potential of the proposed method for advanced target detection.

Main Methods:

• A Sagnac lateral shearing interferometer generates polychromatic interference patterns projected onto the target.
• Interferograms modulated by the target are acquired during a single scanning process.
• Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) is applied to extract spectral, polarization, and 3D shape information from the interferograms.

Main Results:

• The proposed method successfully performs 5D-fusion sensing in one scanning operation using a single device.
• Spectral and polarization information is extracted from the moduli of the frequency spectra.
• 3D shape is accurately recovered from the phase of the frequency spectra.

Conclusions:

• The developed method offers a unified approach to 5D-fusion sensing, outperforming separate detection techniques.
• It significantly enhances the sensing and recognition capabilities of optical imaging.
• The technology holds broad application potential across diverse fields including biomedicine, food safety, and forensics.