Prof Padgett, 'How many pixels does your camera have? Ours has only one!'

Speaker:
Prof Miles Padgett
Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow, UK

Seminar Title:
How many pixels does your camera have? Ours has only one!

Abstract:
Cameras are often marketed in terms of the number of pixels they have – the more pixels the “better” the camera.  Rather than increasing the number of pixels we ask the question “how can a camera work with only a single pixel?”.  This talk will link the field of computational ghost imaging to that of single-pixel cameras explaining how components found within a standard data projector, more commonly used for projecting films and the like, can be used to create both still and video cameras using a single photodiode.

Such single pixel approaches are particularly useful for imaging at wavelengths where detector arrays are either very expensive or even unobtainable.  The ability to image at unusual wavelengths means that one can make cameras that can see through fog or smoke or even image invisible gases as they leak from pipes.

Beyond imaging at these unusual wavelengths, by adding time resolution to the camera it is possible to see in 3D, perhaps useful for autonomous vehicles and other robotic applications.

Miles Padgett holds the Kelvin Chair of Natural Philosophy at the University of Glasgow. He leads QuantIC, a quantum imaging centre and one of four Quantum Technology hubs in the UK. In 2001 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Edinburgh (RSE) and in 2014 a Fellow of the Royal Society, the UK's National Academy. In 2009, with Les Allen, he won the Institute of Physics Young Medal, in 2014 the RSE Kelvin Medal and in 2015 the Science of Light Prize from the European Physical Society.

He is lead scientist in QuantIC, a £30M investment and one of the UKs four Quantum Technology Hubs.  QuantIC links over 100 world-leading quantum scientists/technologists from six UK Universities with global industry leaders to transform imaging across instrumentation, security and industrial sectors.