Compressive shape from focus based on a linear measurement model

Estimation accuracy of conventional shape from focus techniques is strongly coupled with the number of images in the focal stack, limiting the measurement speed. In this article, a novel compressive shape from focus scheme is proposed with an exemplary algorithm based on modified Laplacian operator and principal component analysis. Simulation with synthetic focal stacks have demonstrated comparable results to the conventional method. Test with 6 compressively captured images achieves same level of performance to that of the conventional method with 100 images.