
Compressed sensing allows reconstruction of complete image data from sparse sampling. In sequential single-sensel imaging, a spatial light modulator is used to select groups of pixel locations whose transmitted or reflected light is measured by a single detector. This function is commonly implemented using a digital micromirror device (DMD), but DMDs are relatively small and expensive. This work investigates the use of a transmissive liquid crystal display (LCD) panel as a lower-cost, larger-format alternative. The Kentucky LCD One Sensel (KLOS) prototype repurposes a consumer projector LCD and its control electronics, combining them with custom 3D-printed camera components, a projector lens, and a Fresnel lens. Preliminary testing demonstrates that both random and deterministic binary patterns can be used successfully, confirming the feasibility of the concept. However, serious practical limitations were observed, including sample-rate limitations imposed by HDMI control, synchronization lag, limited LCD contrast, and strong sensitivity to panel-to-sensor alignment.

This paper documents the design, construction, and experimental evaluation of an ultra-low-cost large-format digital camera. Used lenses that cover formats up to 4x5 can be surprisingly inexpensive, but large-format image sensors are not. By combining 3D printing with cheap components developed for use in IoT (Internet of Things) devices, especially the sub-$10 ESP32-CAM, a digital scanning large-format camera capable of over 2GP resolution can be constructed at very low cost. Despite the large image area, Lafodis160 is literally a wireless IoT device, fully remote controllable via Bluetooth and WiFi. This camera was originally intended to serve as a testbed for novel ways to improve capture quality for scenes that are not completely static during the scan interval, and a brief overview is given of methods employing unusual scan orderings that will be evaluated using it.