Temporally Coded Flash Illumination for Motion Deblurring

Abstract

We use temporally sequenced flash illumination to capture coded exposure images of fast-moving objects in low light environments. These coded flash images allow for accurate estimation of blur-free latent images in the presence of object motion. By distributing flashes over a window of time, we lessen eye safety concerns associated with powerful all-at-once flashes. We show how our flash-based coded exposure system has better robustness to increasing object velocity than shutter-based exposure coding, thereby obviating the need for pre-exposure velocity estimation. We also show that the quality of the estimated sharp image is robust to varying levels of ambient illumination. This and other benefits of our coded flash system are demonstrated with real images acquired using prototype hardware.