Abstract

The ability to form images without conventional lenses is of significant interest for a variety of imaging applications. One approach is to use a spatial light modulator as a programmable aperture that can be used to implement different types of transforms during the imaging process. In this paper, we discuss an approach for creating the image of a large scene by multiplexing smaller portions of the scene onto the same focal plane. This is achieved by interleaving multiple pupil functions in the same aperture, and directing each pupil function to “look” in multiple directions. Several frames are collected by sequencing different groups of pupil functions which are then decoded to reconstruct the full image. We will also address the implications of signal to noise ratio (SNR) on the image reconstruction process, and the trade between SNR and associated modulation transfer function (MTF).

© 2007 Optical Society of America