Programmable aperture photography

Abstract

In this paper, we present a system including a novel component called programmable aperture and two associated post-processing algorithms for high-quality light field acquisition. The shape of the programmable aperture can be adjusted and used to capture light field at full sensor resolution through multiple exposures without any additional optics and without moving the camera. High acquisition efficiency is achieved by employing an optimal multiplexing scheme, and quality data is obtained by using the two post-processing algorithms designed for self calibration of photometric distortion and for multi-view depth estimation. View-dependent depth maps thus generated help boost the angular resolution of light field. Various post-exposure photographic effects are given to demonstrate the effectiveness of the system and the quality of the captured light field.