Passive and single-viewpoint 3d imaging system

A system for a passive and single-viewpoint 3D imaging system, comprising:

• a camera;
• and
• an optimized phase mask placed in an aperture plane of the camera,
• wherein the optimized phase mask and a reconstruction algorithm allow the system to estimate a 3D or depth image.

A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions, the instructions executable by a computer processor and comprising functionality for:

• building a differentiable forward model with an optical layer and a reconstruction network,
• wherein in the optical layer, a physics-based model simulates a plurality of coded images captured on a sensor with a phase mask, and
• wherein in the reconstruction network, a neural network produces a depth map from the coded images;
• training a framework with a red green blue depth (RGBD) dataset to optimize a height map of the phase mask and parameters in the neural network;
• fabricating an optimal phase mask using photolithography method and placing in an aperture plane of a camera;
• calibrating a plurality of point spread functions (PSFs) at different depths;
• simulating the plurality of coded images with the calibrated PSFs to fine-tune the neural network;
• and
• recovering the corresponding depth map by capturing and passing a plurality of images through the neural network.