High-resolution non-line-of-sight imaging employing active focusing

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging is a rapidly developing research direction that has significant applications in autonomous vehicles, remote sensing and other areas. Existing NLOS methods primarily depend on time-gated measurements and sophisticated signal processing to extract information from scattered light. Here we introduce a method that directly manipulates light to counter the wall's scattering. This method, termed unseen non-line-of-sight casted optical aperture visibility-enhanced return (UNCOVER) focusing, operates by actively focusing light onto the hidden target using wavefront shaping. By raster scanning that focus, we can actively image the hidden object. The focus thus formed is near diffraction limited and can be substantially smaller than the object itself, thereby enabling us to perform NLOS imaging with unprecedented resolution. We demonstrate that a resolution of similar to 0.6 mm at a distance of 0.55 m is achievable in UNCOVER, giving us a distance-to-resolution ratio of similar to 970.

Automated summary

Non-line-of-sight (NLOS) imaging is a rapidly developing research direction with significant applications in autonomous vehicles, remote sensing, and other areas. This study introduces a method called UNCOVER focusing, which manipulates light to counter scattering and achieves NLOS imaging with unprecedented resolution. By actively focusing light onto hidden targets using wavefront shaping, the method forms a near diffraction-limited focus smaller than the object itself, enabling high-resolution imaging.