3D imaging and wavefront sensing with a plenoptic objective

Abstract

Plenoptic cameras have been developed over the last years as a passive method for 3d scanning. Several superresolution algorithms have been proposed in order to increase the resolution decrease associated with lightfield acquisition with a microlenses array. A number of multiview stereo algorithms have also been applied in order to extract depth information from plenoptic frames. Real time systems have been implemented using specialized hardware as Graphical Processing Units (GPUs) and Field Programmable Gates Arrays (FPGAs). In this paper, we will present our own implementations related with the aforementioned aspects but also two new developments consisting of a portable plenoptic objective to transform every conventional 2d camera in a 3D CAFADIS plenoptic camera, and the novel use of a plenoptic camera as a wavefront phase sensor for adaptive optics (OA). The terrestrial atmosphere degrades the telescope images due to the diffraction index changes associated with the turbulence. These changes require a high speed processing that justify the use of GPUs and FPGAs. Na artificial Laser Guide Stars (Na-LGS, 90km high) must be used to obtain the reference wavefront phase and the Optical Transfer Function of the system, but they are affected by defocus because of the finite distance to the telescope. Using the telescope as a plenoptic camera allows us to correct the defocus and to recover the wavefront phase tomographically. These advances significantly increase the versatility of the plenoptic camera, and provides a new contribution to relate the wave optics and computer vision fields, as many authors claim.