Spectral imaging technique, which retrieves both spatial and spectral information of a scene or an object, is an important tool in applications such as food inspection, vegetation monitoring and geographic remote sensing. Most spectral imaging systems have a complex system architecture, in which different components are used for different functions, limiting the efficiency of information retrieval. Here, we propose a hyperspectral imaging system with a simple architecture, where a multiplexing digital micromirror device functions both as a spatial light modulator for spatial imaging and a diffractive grating for spectral measuring simultaneously. The proof-of-principle system contains a group of lenses, a digital micromirror device and a one-dimensional detector array, and is capable of performing 128 × 128 pixel resolution hyperspectral imaging over the visible spectrum with an experimental 3.73 nm spectral resolution. Furthermore, by using a compressive sampling strategy, continuous real-time spectral video is performed with a frame-rate up to 10 Hz. The concise architecture of the proposed system, with the potential to be easily extended to both ultraviolet and infrared, offers an alternative scheme to manufacture low-cost, compact, hyperspectral imagers.

光谱成像技术可以检索场景或物体的空间和光谱信息，是食品检验、植被监测和地理遥感等应用中的重要工具。大多数光谱成像系统具有复杂的系统架构，其中不同的组件用于不同的功能，限制了信息检索的效率。在这里，我们提出了一种具有简单架构的高光谱成像系统，其中多路复用数字微镜器件既可用作空间成像的空间光调制器，又可同时用作光谱测量的衍射光栅。原理验证系统包含一组透镜、一个数字微镜装置和一个一维探测器阵列，并且能够在可见光谱上执行 128 × 128 像素分辨率的高光谱成像，实验光谱分辨率为 3.73 nm。此外，通过使用压缩采样策略，以高达 10 Hz 的帧速率执行连续实时频谱视频。所提出系统的简洁架构，有可能轻松扩展到紫外线和红外线，为制造低成本、紧凑型高光谱成像仪提供了一种替代方案。