SUMMER RESEARCH EXPERIENCE

Talal Javed QadriDuke Class of 2015

Research Lab Assistant Worked with The Duke Imaging and

Spectroscopy Program (DISP) Dr. David J Brady- Head of the program Computational optical sensors research

program Affiliated with the Department of

Electrical and Computer Engineering, the Fitzpatrick Institute for Photonics, and the Pratt School of Engineering at Duke University

Various Projects

My Project: AWARE gigapixel imaging

DISP developed a two gigapixel camera Used new techniques like multi-scale

design using mononcentric optical designs and using microcameras as a general optical processing unit

Started with initial design of 1 gigapixel and plan to eventually develop a 40 gigapixel camera

Currently working on a 10 gigapixel design

Traditional gigapixel design constraints

Traditional monolithic lens designs, must increase focus and lens complexity

Reduce field of view as image scale increases.

Traditional electronic architectures are not designed for highly parallel streaming and analysis of large scale images.

The AWARE design addresses these challenges using multiscale designs that combine a monocentric objective lens with arrays of secondary microcameras.

Design features of the Aware two gigapixel camera

Composed of 98 smaller cameras that shoot at 14 megapixels

These micro cameras rest in a football-sized sphere

Pictures from the multiple cameras are then combined together in a computer connected to the sphere

This ‘stitching’ of images is achieved by using Gigapan software, as well as Python and Matlab programs specifically written for this purpose

The final result is one highly detailed image

Billion pixel shots generate photos with five times as much detail as what a person with 20/20 vision can see, and produce images 30 times better than the best SLR camera available on the market

Department of Defense funded the research of this device in hopes of using this technology in both aerial and land surveillance

Other gigapixel cameras developed but none boast a field of view 120 degrees wide and 50 degrees tall like the Aware-2

Currently weighs a 100 pounds and shoots only in black-and-white

The next 10 gigapixel camera will shoot color images and will also be lighter

Camera with outer covers removed

Exploded view of inner sphere

My responsibilities Aided in designing and building a custom

transport mechanism for the camera

Took pictures with the camera in different locations for example in the Duke gardens

Created a method for recording the exact coordinates of each picture on the Linux system of the camera’s computer. Achieved this using a Garmin GPS receiver along with a software called “gpsd”