Patent Document ID: 9654741
Application ID: 13937331
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. A system for image acquisition suitable for use in a turbine engine, said system comprising: a coded-aperture mask, said coded-aperture mask having a plurality of apertures configured for projecting light received from a field of view in an object plane onto an image plane, wherein said coded-aperture mask is characterized by a first transfer function, an image conduit, said image conduit comprising a set of imaging fibers arranged to form an image acquisition end and an image processing end, said image acquisition end being arranged to substantially coincide with said image plane such that each imaging fiber acquires light projected onto a corresponding region within said image plane, and transfers said light to said image processing end, wherein said image conduit is characterized by a second transfer function, a sensor array, said sensor array comprising a set of light sensing elements arranged to receive light from individual imaging fibers at said image processing end, and generate corresponding sampled image signals in a sensing basis, and a signal processing device, said signal processing device configured for transforming said sampled image signals from said sensing basis to a representation basis and generating a set of estimated image signals therefrom based on said first and second transfer functions, wherein said representation basis provides a sparser representation of said sampled image signals relative to said sensing basis, and further wherein the number of estimated image signals is greater than the number of sampled image signals to increase image resolution for a given number of imaging fibers in said image conduit and reduce a number of imaging fibers to provide an image conduit having a reduced form-factor to enable access to regions of interest within the turbine engine, wherein the image conduit is enabled to access regions that are less than 8 mm in diameter, wherein the intensity pattern of light on the image plane is related to the intensity pattern of the light in the object plane through the first transfer function, and wherein the light intensity on the image processing end is related to the light intensity on the acquisition end through the second transfer function.