End-to-End Design of Electro-Optic Imaging Systems

Abstract

A unified design strategy takes into account different subsystems within an overall electro-optic imaging system. In one implementation, the design methodology predicts end-to-end imaging performance using a spatial model for the source and models for the optical subsystem, the detector subsystem and the digital image processing subsystem. The optical subsystem and digital image processing subsystems are jointly designed taking into account the entire system. The intermediate image produced by the optical subsystem is not required to be high quality since, for example, the quality may be corrected by the digital image processing subsystem.

1 . A system comprising:
 an optical subsystem that forms an aberrated intermediate optical image based on an input source;   a detector subsystem positioned to detect the intermediate optical image formed by the optical subsystem as an intermediate digital image; and   a digital image processing subsystem coupled to the detector subsystem to execute image processing on the intermediate digital image, the digital image processing subsystem at least partially compensating for an aberration of the optical subsystem, the compensation based on a point spread function of the optical subsystem.   
   
   
       2 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said aberration is a positive spherical aberration. 
   
   
       3 . The system of  claim 1  wherein said optical subsystem contains an optical lens. 
   
   
       4 . A system comprising:
 an optical subsystem that forms an intermediate optical image based on an input source, the optical subsystem characterized by a wavefront error;   a detector subsystem positioned to detect the intermediate optical image formed by the optical subsystem as an intermediate digital image; and   a digital image processing subsystem coupled to the detector subsystem to execute image processing on the intermediate digital image, the digital image processing subsystem at least partially compensating for the wavefront error of the optical subsystem.   
   
   
       5 . The system of  claim 4  wherein said optical subsystem includes an optical element, and the optical element is positioned at a location that does not minimize the wavefront error. 
   
   
       6 . The system of  claim 4  wherein the detector subsystem is positioned relative to the optical subsystem at a location that does not minimize the wavefront error. 
   
   
       7 . The system of  claim 4  wherein said optical subsystem is an incoherent optical subsystem.