Point spread function estimation from projected speckle illumination

The resolution of an imaging apparatus is ideally limited by the diffraction properties of the light passing through the system aperture, but in many practical cases, inhomogeneities in the light propagating medium or imperfections in the optics degrade the image resolution. Here we introduce a powerful and practical new approach for estimating the point spread function (PSF) of an imaging system on the basis of PSF Estimation from Projected Speckle Illumination (PEPSI). PEPSI uses the fact that the speckles’ phase randomness cancels the effects of the aberrations in the illumination path, thereby providing an objective pattern for measuring the deformation of the imaging path. Using this approach, both wide-field-of-view and local-PSF estimation can be obtained by calibration-free, single-speckle-pattern projection. Finally, we demonstrate the feasibility of using PEPSI estimates for resolution improvement in iterative maximum likelihood deconvolution.