Engineering Coherent Light for Probing the Obscured World

As applications in defense, medicine, and autonomous systems evolve, they increasingly demand imaging and sensing capabilities that are beyond the limits of conventional sensors. In this context, I explore how coherent light can be engineered to carry information that is normally inaccessible to conventional sensors. Through examples drawn from non-line-of-sight imaging, imaging through scattering media, and fiber endoscopy, I will show how obscured information can be encoded in the temporal frequency, spatial or spectral statistics, and temporal derivatives of detected light. I will also discuss how these encoding and decoding schemes are adapted to both the physics of light propagation and the available instrumentation, such as lock-in cameras, neuromorphic cameras, and spatial light modulators. Across these examples, foundational electrical engineering principles such as modulation, heterodyning, ergodicity and correlations emerge as key tools for enabling new sensing capabilities. Together, they suggest a broader paradigm in which imaging systems are co-designed across physics, hardware, and algorithms to recover actionable information.
 

Engineering Coherent Light for Probing the Obscured World

As applications in defense, medicine, and autonomous systems evolve, they increasingly demand imaging and sensing capabilities that are beyond the limits of conventional sensors. In this context, I explore how coherent light can be engineered to carry information that is normally inaccessible to conventional sensors. Through examples drawn from non-line-of-sight imaging, imaging through scattering media, and fiber endoscopy, I will show how obscured information can be encoded in the temporal frequency, spatial or spectral statistics, and temporal derivatives of detected light. I will also discuss how these encoding and decoding schemes are adapted to both the physics of light propagation and the available instrumentation, such as lock-in cameras, neuromorphic cameras, and spatial light modulators. Across these examples, foundational electrical engineering principles such as modulation, heterodyning, ergodicity and correlations emerge as key tools for enabling new sensing capabilities. Together, they suggest a broader paradigm in which imaging systems are co-designed across physics, hardware, and algorithms to recover actionable information.