Methods and systems for distributed radar imaging

1. An imaging system comprising:

a plurality of transmitters mounted spaced-apart on a structure configured to transmit random or decorrelated signals in a direction of a scene of interest, wherein the transmitted signals are spatially and temporally incoherent where the transmitted signals reach the scene of interest;

a receiver set including at least a first receiver and a second receiver, the first receiver and the second receiver being configured to receive a reflected signal, wherein the reflected signal is a reflection of the transmitted signals from the scene of interest, and wherein the first receiver and the second receiver are phase locked to a same reference signal;

an active incoherent millimeter-wave image processor configured to obtain the reflected signal and reconstruct the scene based on the reflected signal; and

a display device configured to display the scene.

2. The imaging system of claim 1 , wherein:

the first receiver and the second receiver operate as a correlation interferometer; and

the first receiver and the second receiver are phase coherent.

3. The imaging system of claim 1 , wherein:

the transmitter is configured to transmit a plurality of signals at predetermined intervals; and

the transmitter and the receiver set are mounted on an automotive vehicle.

4. The imaging system of claim 1 , wherein:

the receiver set is configured to collect the reflected signal at a first spatial frequency; and

the first spatial frequency of the reflected signal is based on a distance and an angle between the first receiver and the second receiver.

5. The imaging system of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of receiver sets including the first receiver and the second receiver, wherein each receiver set of the plurality of receiver sets is configured to receive the reflected signal at a corresponding spatial frequency.

6. The imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the active incoherent millimeter-wave image processor constructs the scene using spatial frequency sampling.

7. The imaging system of claim 1 , wherein:

(a) the active incoherent millimeter-wave image processor includes a processor with an associated memory configured to store instructions; and

(b) the instructions cause the processor to construct the scene by:

receiving a first voltage output for the first receiver and a second voltage output for the second receiver;

normalizing the first voltage output and the second voltage output;

correlating the first voltage output and the second voltage output to yield a sample of visibility; and

performing an inverse Fourier transform of the sample of visibility to produce the scene.

8. The imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitted signal has a pseudo-random amplitude and a pseudo-random phase.

9. The imaging system of claim 1 , wherein the transmitted signal is decorrelated to be spatially and temporally incoherent.

10. The imaging system of claim 1 , further comprising a plurality of transmitters configured to transmit a plurality of pseudo-noise signals.

11. An imaging system comprising:

(a) a plurality of modules, wherein each module of the plurality of modules includes:

a plurality of spaced-apart transmitters spaced apart on a structure configured to transmit random or decorrelated signals in a direction of a scene of interest, wherein the transmitted signals are spatially and temporally incoherent where the transmitted signals reach the scene of interest; and

a receiver configured to receive a reflected signal, wherein the reflected signal is a reflection of the transmitted signal from the scene of interest, wherein the receiver is operating in a 30 GHZ to 300 GHz band, and wherein the receiver is phase locked to a same reference signal;

(b) an active incoherent image processing module configured to obtain the reflected signal and generate a reconstructed scene based on the reflected signal; and

(c) a display module configured to display the reconstructed scene.

12. The imaging system of claim 11 wherein each transmitter of the plurality of modules is configured to transmit a plurality of signals at predetermined intervals.

13. The imaging system of claim 11 wherein the plurality of modules are mounted along a front bumper of a vehicle and positioned vertically relative to each other from the front bumper to a top of the vehicle.

14. The imaging system of claim 11 wherein the plurality of modules are configured in a T-shaped configuration.

15. The imaging system of claim 11 wherein the plurality of modules are configured in a Y-shaped configuration.

16. An active incoherent millimeter-wave imaging method comprising:

transmitting, by a plurality of transmitters mounted spaced-apart on a structure, random or decorrelated signals in a direction of a scene of interest, wherein the transmitted signals are spatially and temporally incoherent where the transmitted signals reach the scene of interest;

receiving, by a plurality of receivers, a reflected signal, wherein the scene of interest reflects the transmitted signal as the reflected signal, and wherein each receiver of the plurality of receivers forms a set with each at least one other receiver of the plurality of receivers and each receiver set is configured to receive the reflected signal at a respective spatial frequency, and wherein the plurality of receivers are phase locked to a same reference signal;

constructing a scene based on the reflected signal using spatial frequency sampling; and

transmitting the scene to a display screen.

17. The active incoherent millimeter-wave imaging method of claim 16 wherein the transmitting includes transmitting, by the transmitter, a plurality of signals at predetermined intervals.

18. The active incoherent millimeter-wave imaging method of claim 16 wherein the transmitted signal has a pseudo-random amplitude and a pseudo-random phase.

19. The active incoherent millimeter-wave imaging method of claim 16 wherein the transmitted signal is decorrelated to be spatially and temporally incoherent.

20. The active incoherent millimeter-wave imaging method of claim 16 further comprising:

receiving a first voltage output for a first receiver of the plurality of receivers and a second voltage output for a second receiver of the plurality of receivers;

normalizing the first voltage output and the second voltage output;

correlating the first voltage output and the second voltage output to yield a sample of visibility; and

performing an inverse Fourier transform of the sample of visibility to construct the scene.