Low Intensity LiDAR using Compressed Sensing and a Photon Number Resolving Detector

LiDAR (laser based radar) systems are a major part of many new real-world interactive systems, one of the most notable being autonomous cars. The current market LiDAR systems are limited by detector sensitivity: when output power is at eye-safe levels, the range is limited. Long range operation also slows image acquisition as flight-time increases. We present an approach that combines a high sensitivity photon number resolving diode with machine learning and a micro-mechanical digital mirror device to achieve safe and fast long range 3D scanning.