Compressive confocal microscopy

In this paper, a new framework for confocal microscopy based on the novel theory of compressive sensing is proposed. Unlike wide field microscopy or conventional parallel beam confocal imaging systems that use charge-coupled devices (CCD) as acquisition devices in addition to complex mechanical scanning system, the proposed compressive confocal microscopy is a kind of parallel beam confocal imaging system which exploits the rich theory of compressive sensing by using a single pixel detector and a digital micromirror device (DMD) to capture linear projections of the in-focus image. With the proposed system, confocal imaging of high optical sectioning ability can be achieved at sub-Nyquist sampling rates. Theoretical analysis, simulations and experimental results are shown to demonstrate the characteristics and potential of the proposed approach.