Estimation-theoretic analysis of lensless imaging

Abstract: We analyze lensless imaging systems with estimation-theoretic techniques based on Fisher information. Our analysis evaluates multiple optical encoder designs on objects with varying sparsity, in the context of both Gaussian and Poisson noise models. Our simulations verify that lensless imaging system performance is object-dependent and highlight tradeoffs between encoder multiplexing and object sparsity, showing quantitatively that sparse objects tolerate higher levels of multiplexing than dense objects. Insights from our analysis promise to inform and improve optical encoder designs for lensless imaging.