Designs for high performance PAL-based imaging systems

In this study, we investigate methods to optimize the design of a panoramic annular lens (PAL) system. The design details of a PAL surveillance system, an anamorphic PAL surveillance system, a phone camera with a PAL attachment, and a PAL endoscope system are described. All these designs are optimized using a standard optical software package (Zemax). The results combine very good image quality with a modulation transfer function above 0.3, which is within the cutoff frequency of sensor chips.