Adaptive optics is an emerging field with applications in areas as diverse as astronomy, opthalmology, 3D imaging, retinal imaging, laser material processing and military imaging. Light is distorted by the medium through which it travels, adaptive optics attempts to compensate for that distortion to produce more clear and detailed images. 

The specific application we are interested in is astronomy. The image resolution that may be obtained by traditional telescopes is limited due to factors such as interference by the earths constantly changing atmosphere.  New telescopes based on adaptive optics compensate for the distortions by calculating the aberrations in the wave-front and changing the shape of deformable mirrors to correct blurring. 

 Very accurate, robust and fast calculations of the wave-fronts are required to control these systems and to return high resolution images in real time. The only way to achieve this goal is to use techniques that are at the forefront of both the mathematical and computer sciences.

We will present some early experiments focussing on the effect of noise in the images.