What are COSI systems? Imaging has evolved from the early single-image, pixel-based, and model-less methods, to new modalities including multiimage, multisensor, and model-based approaches. The design of COSI simultaneously incorporates optics, optoelectronics, signal processing, and advanced mathematical algorithms. The system performance is controlled by joint optimization of these elements, as opposed to an independent optimization of each separately.

COSI's greatest potential is in realizing capabilities and performance that are otherwise impossible to obtain using classical methods. Research in this area covers various imaging modalities, including optical tomography, coherence, synthetic aperture, metamaterials and plasmonic imaging architectures, as well as wavefront coded imaging. High impact application areas of the research encompass UV lithography, nano-manufacturing inspection, superresolution microscopy for biological sciences including single molecule studies, environmental sensing, radar image processing, and imaging systems for consumer electronics.