An optimized lens design using optical imaging for surveillance camera systems with minimal aberration

Abstract Modern security cameras are complex, operate in visible and near-infrared wavelength bands with a vast field of view, and are mounted on a motorized stage to scan and zoom the scene. Here, a low-cost aberration free security camera designed to record activity within a fixed-size field and provide surveillance in the visible band is discussed to reduce the cost of the design and also the fabrication of a custom sensor is highly prohibitive. Using global synthesis and automated design methods with the Code-V tool, we have designed and analyzed an on-screen display (OSD) camera with multiple camera lens parameters and suggested using the proposed camera system during the day in an open, well-lit area. For getting video graphics array format (640 × 480 pixels), the pixel size should be 7.5 µ m. Considering the Nyquist criterion, the smallest line pair detected by the sensor would be two pixels wide,15 µ m/lp or 66.67 c mm −1 . The optimal parameters have been designed and optimized with multiple parameters like modulation transfer function (MTF), spot size diagrams, ray aberration with third-order and fifth-order aberrations curve, and error function. After optimization, the effective focal length value is 3.9881. The aperture size obtained after optimization is f/8, the entrance pupil diameter is 0.4985, and the overall length is 0.5184. The MTF obtained is 0.7563. The error function reduced to 0.2612. The aberration value lies from 0.018019 to −0.018019. The image height obtained at 1.8597. The designed OSD security camera eliminates spherical and chromatic aberration significantly and eliminates other third order and fifth order aberrations. The significant findings benefit the optics community in designing aberration free low-cost security camera systems.