We report the use of Time Multiplexing Super Resolution (TMSR) to reduce significantly speckle noise in spectral imaging microscopy of unstained thin blood smear samples of malaria-infected blood. The method is based on combining speckle illumination with a moving array serving as an encoding mask. We propose the use of a new encoding mask to improve the performance of the conventional TMSR method. The new mask is a two-dimensional generalisation of the one-dimensional Ipatov code. The mask is projected on the object and 13 low-resolution images captured and subsequently decoded properly using the same array. The low contrast images are added and extracted from the resulting reconstruction, giving a super-resolved, high-contrast image. The Ipatov filter used in this work performs better than the Barker filter.

Keywords: image contrast, time multiplexing, transfer function, super resolution, image processing, blood smear, multispectral, speckle ­reduction, diffraction, malaria