3-D computational synthetic aperture integral imaging (COMPSAII)

We propose a computational synthetic aperture integral imaging technique that increases the field of view (FOV) and viewing angle of integral imagines systems. The synthetic aperture is obtained by relative movement of the imaging system and the object in a plane perpendicular to the optical axis. Integral images (Us) captured during the scanning process are combined together to create a synthetic aperture integral image (SAII) that has an enlarged effective FOV. Three-dimensional (3D) images are computed digitally from the constructed SAII in similar ways that are computed from single digital II. Since the synthetic aperture is obtained by a scanning process, the proposed method is suitable when the integral imaging system is located on moving platforms such as aircrafts or when the object is in motion such as objects on assembly lines. CompSAII allows reconstruction of the images at different distances from the lenslets using light backward or forward propagation to position the viewing plane at any arbitrary position. To the best of our knowledge this is the first time a computational synthetic aperture technique is applied to integral imaging.