Adaptive sensing and inference for single-photon imaging

In recent years, there have been increasing efforts to develop solid-state sensors with single-photon sensitivity, with applications ranging from bio-imaging to 3D computer vision. In this paper, we present adaptive sensing models, theory and algorithms for these single-photon sensors, aiming to improve their dynamic ranges. Mapping different sensor configurations onto a finite set of states, we represent adaptive sensing schemes as finite-state parametric Markov chains. After deriving an asymptotic expression for the Fisher information rate of these Markovian systems, we propose a design criterion for sensing policies based on minimax ratio regret. We also present a suboptimal yet effective sensing policy based on random walks. Numerical experiments demonstrate the strong performance of the proposed scheme, which expands the sensor dynamic ranges of existing nonadaptive approaches by several orders of magnitude.