I’m most passionate about mixing Signal and Image Processing, Optics, Computer Vision and Python for solving problems. At the same time, I’m equally comfortable using a pen/pencil & paper, writing code, or operating a rotary tool.

Here is a smorgasbord of my technical skills and interests. Every now and then, a new bubbles appear at the bottom. Some of them remain long enough to grow and move upwards.

Apart from the above technical areas, I love photography and reading books on science and philosophy.

As a child, I often dreamed about being an inventor who could make little devices that flew, swam and drove;  an artist who could make beautiful paintings with eyes closed; a philanthropic who had The great idea about how to eradicate poverty from the face of the earth; an adventurer like Tintin and a soccer player like Maradona — all at the same time! Although I have not stopped dreaming, the soccer boots haven’t come out of the cupboard for quite some time now; my adventures are mostly limited to visiting the National Parks; I still feel that there must be a way to eradicate poverty completely; and I have metamorphosed from loving the smell of turpentine to loving the sound of the camera-shutter. I think that maybe, just maybe, I will be able to achieve my dream of being an inventor.

My area of research spans Computational Imaging, Computational Photography, Optics, Computer Vision and Signal Processing. Currently, I am a post-doctoral fellow at the Photonics Architecture Lab at SMU, Dallas, Texas, where I am part of a team trying to find ways of seeing objects hidden from direct view, for example behind a wall. More details about the program can be found here.

During my PhD, I have been involved (along with my collaborators) in tackling some of the fundamental problems in optical imaging systems (such as cameras)—limited ability for resolving fine details, loss of depth information, and limited depth of field. For my thesis work, I combined ideas from traditional Scheimpflug imaging and focus stacking to develop a new computational imaging technique called Angular Focus Stacking. Using this technique, I demonstrated a 10X improvement in the axial capture volume of iris recognition systems without sacrificing optical spatial resolution and SNR. This improvement can potentially enable iris recognition systems to be deployed in large public spaces for providing safety.

Prior to joining SMU for my PhD, I developed real-time embedded software for Audio/Video processors at LSI Logic and Magnum Semiconductors. Please visit my research page and publications page to view some of my research projects, collaborators and publications.

Although I am a researcher/engineer by professional training, I feel I am an artist at heart. I practice and follow photography very passionately. I believe that photography has positively influenced me in the way I look at the world around me (both metaphorically and literally). Please visit my Photography page and some of the galleries therein to see some of my photographic work.