Programmable imaging using a digital micromirror array

We introduce the notion of a programmable imaging system. Such an imaging system provides a human user or a vision system significant control over the radiometric and geometric characteristics of the system. This flexibility is achieved using a programmable array of micro-mirrors. The orientations of the mirrors of the array can be controlled with high precision over space and time. This enables the system to select and modulate rays from the light field based on the needs of the application at hand. We have implemented a programmable imaging system that uses a digital micro-mirror device (DMD), which is used in digital light processing. Although the mirrors of this device can only be positioned in one of two states, we show that our system can be used to implement a wide variety of imaging functions, including, high dynamic range imaging, feature detection, and object recognition. We conclude with a discussion on how a micro-mirror array can be used to efficiently control field of view without the use of moving parts.