Summary
Today’s imaging systems primarily perform a single or limited set of measurements due, in large part, to the underlying readout integrated circuits (ROICs), which sample the signal of interest and transfer the values off of the chip.
ROICs are currently designed for a specific mode of operation and are, effectively, application specific integrated circuits (ASICs).
The Reconfigurable Imaging (ReImagine) program seeks to demonstrate that a software-reconfigurable imaging system is capable of enabling revolutionary capabilities. The goals of the program are to create a new approach to application development that is more similar to field programmable gate array (FPGA)-based design than ASIC design, and develop the underlying theory and algorithms that learn to collect the most valuable information when the sensor can be configured for a variety of measurements.
The ReImagine program aims to demonstrate that a single, reconfigurable ROIC architecture can accommodate multiple modes of imaging operations that may be defined after a chip has been designed.
The ReImagine program takes advantage of 3-D integration, which makes it possible to interface with virtually any type of imaging sensor (e.g. photodiode, photoconductor, avalanche photodiode, or bolometer) and optimize it for any spectral band (e.g. ultraviolet (UV) through very long-wave infrared (VLWIR).
More importantly, this approach makes it possible to adapt the mode of operation either through manual user control, through preset routines that can change many times per second, or in response to context derived from the scene being observed. For example, a single imager could present simultaneous regions of interest (ROIs) that can run at different spatial or temporal resolutions or can run either active or passive.
ReImagine ROICs will also demonstrate that efficient computation within an ROI can enable real-time analysis on much more complex scenes than traditional systems. The program will build on this architecture to develop a concept of operation, application requirements, modes of operation, and needed algorithms.
The ReImagine ROICs could enable delivery of more actionable information to the warfighter than has ever been possible from a single imaging sensor.