Electrical and Computer Engineering

Photonics Research Focuses on Signal Processing, Biological Imaging (continued)

New optical/digital imaging techniques developed by Professor Thomas Cathey produce greater depth of field, as shown in the bottom photo, as compared to traditional imaging methods.

In the photonic techniques Wagner, Popovic and their colleagues are developing, each antenna receives the RF signal, which then controls or modulates a light source. Next, this modulated light is beamed through an optical fiber from the antennas to a central station where all the fibers are gathered, and the very high frequency signal information (1 to 100 billion cycles per second) is processed optically.

Improved radio signal processing has implications for national security as well as potential to increase the capacity and decrease the number of cell phone towers, and achieve more reliable data transmission in the growing number of satellite communications systems. This multidisciplinary research is funded by a five-year, $4.5 million grant from the Department of Defense.

In another area of research, a new hybrid optical/digital imaging technique invented in the department's Imaging Systems Laboratory by Professor Thomas Cathey and former student Edward Dowski can improve barcode and label readers. More importantly, it can facilitate biological research on the dynamics of living cells.

In this technique, specially designed optical surfaces are inserted into an imaging system, and the digital image thus acquired is subjected to signal processing. This provides a depth of field up to 30 times greater than the current standard for high-resolution microscopes, allowing researchers to view live cells whole rather than in sequential slices, which currently they must piece together for a complete image.

"An understanding of dynamic sub-cellular events is critical to learning enough about basic cell biology to elucidate disease processes in many of the major human killers," says Cathey.

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