Computational Photography: Coded Exposure and Coded Aperture Imaging

The emerging field of computational photography is exploring the possibilities of digital photography beyond the imitation of film cameras. Novel illumination, optics, sensors, and processing methods are employed to expand the set of images that cameras can create. This thesis introduces the field of computational photography and presents two exemplary techniques that address the problem of blur in photographs. Using simple hardware modifications, coded exposure and coded aperture cameras produce images for which the traditionally ill-posed deconvolution problem can be solved. The thesis begins by introducing the limits of traditional photography, then proceeds to explore how coded imaging techniques circumvent them, concluding by placing these techniques in the context of computational photography and the future of digital cameras.