Ultra-shallow DoF imaging using faced paraboloidal mirrors

Abstract

We propose a new imaging method that achieves an ultra-shallow depth of field (DoF) to clearly visualize a particular depth in a 3-D scene. The key optical device consists of a pair of faced paraboloidal mirrors with holes around their vertexes. In the device, a lens-less image sensor is set at one side of their holes and an object is set at the opposite side. The characteristic of the device is that the shape of the point spread function varies depending on both the positions of the target 3-D point and the image sensor. By leveraging this characteristic, we reconstruct a clear image for a particular depth by solving a linear system involving position-dependent point spread functions. In experiments, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method using both simulation and an actually developed prototype imaging system.