Model-based image reconstruction of chemiluminescence using a plenoptic 2.0 camera

Resolving the 3-D structure of translucent objects is of fundamental interest in combustion research. Recent progress in light-field imaging systems provides a single-shot, single-access-point imaging tool for volumetric image reconstruction. However, when a translucent object being imaged has low contrast edges, the conventional block-matching depth reconstruction algorithm used in commercial plenoptic cameras performs poorly. To solve this problem, this paper investigates reconstructing translucent objects using a model-based image reconstruction (MBIR) method. Preliminary simulation results illustrate that useful 3D object information can be resolved using MBIR methods. However, severe z-direction dispersion is observed in the reconstructed images due to the limited angular variation of incident light rays.