UNS:Fluorescence light-field imaging with a lensless flexible fiber bundle

Trustees Of Boston University, Boston

Investigators

Abstract

PI: Mertz, Jerome Proposal: 1508988 The objective of this proposal is to build an ultraminiaturized imaging device that can be used to image at arbitrary depths within tissue, and to reach confined regions in samples that are difficult to access. A key feature of the device is that it will be able to focus to variable depths, even though it is lensless in design and contains no moving parts. The device can be used with any type of luminous object, such as fluorescence, bioluminescence or even white-light illuminated scenes. The device is based on an invention the PI recently patented that enables high-throughput imaging through a single optical fiber. This uses the principle of a spread-spectrum encoder (SSE), wherein light-ray directions entering a fiber are converted into unique, broadband, fingerprint spectral codes that then propagate through the fiber to be detected and decoded at the other end. Because image information (i.e. ray directions) is converted into spectral information, this information becomes insensitive to fiber bending or motion, so that the technique can readily be used for microendoscopy applications.