Depth-of-field engineering in coded aperture imaging

Extending the depth-of-field (DOF) of an optical imaging system without effecting the other imaging properties has been an important topic of research for a long time. In this work, we propose a new general technique of engineering the DOF of an imaging system beyond just a simple extension of the DOF. Engineering the DOF means in this study that the inherent DOF can be extended to one, or to several, separated different intervals of DOF, with controlled start and end points. Practically, because of the DOF engineering, entire objects in certain separated different input subvolumes are imaged with the same sharpness as if these objects are all in focus. Furthermore, the images from different subvolumes can be laterally shifted, each subvolume in a different shift, relative to their positions in the object space. By doing so, mutual hiding of images can be avoided. The proposed technique is introduced into a system of coded aperture imaging. In other words, the light from the object space is modulated by a coded aperture and recorded into the computer in which the desired image is reconstructed from the recorded pattern. The DOF engineering is done by designing the coded aperture composed of three diffractive elements. One element is a quadratic phase function dictating the start point of the in-focus axial interval and the second element is a quartic phase function which dictates the end point of this interval. Quasi-random coded phase mask is the third element, which enables the digital reconstruction. Multiplexing several sets of diffractive elements, each with different set of phase coefficients, can yield various axial reconstruction curves. The entire diffractive elements are displayed on a spatial light modulator such that real-time DOF engineering is enabled according to the user needs in the course of the observation. Experimental verifications of the proposed system with several examples of DOF engineering are presented, where the entire imaging of the observed scene is done by single camera shot.