# TiDy-PSFs: Computational Imaging with Time-Averaged Dynamic Point-Spread-Functions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.17583 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17583/

## Key facts

- Cited by 5 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 11 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 30 Mar 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [Towards Robust Monocular Depth Estimation: Mixing Datasets for Zero-shot Cross-dataset Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.01341/) (2019)
- [Attention U-Net: Learning Where to Look for the Pancreas](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.03999/) (2018)
- [A Large Dataset to Train Convolutional Networks for Disparity, Optical Flow, and Scene Flow Estimation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.02134/) (2015)
- [ZoeDepth: Zero-shot Transfer by Combining Relative and Metric Depth](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12288/) (2023)
- [Pseudo-LiDAR from Visual Depth Estimation: Bridging the Gap in 3D Object Detection for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.07179/) (2018)
- [Deep Optics for Monocular Depth Estimation and 3D Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.08601/) (2019)
- [Deep Optics for Single-shot High-dynamic-range Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1908.00620/) (2019)
- [Toward Hierarchical Self-Supervised Monocular Absolute Depth Estimation for Autonomous Driving Applications](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.05560/) (2020)
- [Self-Supervised Siamese Learning on Stereo Image Pairs for Depth Estimation in Robotic Surgery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1705.08260/) (2017)
- [Time-multiplexed Neural Holography: A flexible framework for holographic near-eye displays with fast heavily-quantized spatial light modulators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.02367/) (2022)

## Built on by (most cited first, 5 of 5)

- [CodedEvents: Optimal Point-Spread-Function Engineering for 3D-Tracking with Event Cameras](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.09409/) (2024)
- [WaveMo: Learning Wavefront Modulations to See Through Scattering](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2404.07985/) (2024)
- [Learned Off-aperture Encoding for Wide Field-of-view RGBD Imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.22523/) (2025)
- [Realistic Compound-Lens Defocus Blur Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.05837/) (2026)
- [Modelling dynamic systems transfer functions from events in computational neuromorphic imaging](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.29863/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Point-spread-function (PSF) engineering is a powerful computational imaging techniques wherein a custom phase mask is integrated into an optical system to encode additional information into captured images. Used in combination with deep learning, such systems now offer state-of-the-art performance at monocular depth estimation, extended depth-of-field imaging, lensless imaging, and other tasks. Inspired by recent advances in spatial light modulator (SLM) technology, this paper answers a natural question: Can one encode additional information and achieve superior performance by changing a phase mask dynamically over time? We first prove that the set of PSFs described by static phase masks is non-convex and that, as a result, time-averaged PSFs generated by dynamic phase masks are fundamentally more expressive. We then demonstrate, in simulation, that time-averaged dynamic (TiDy) phase masks can offer substantially improved monocular depth estimation and extended depth-of-field imaging performance.