Light-field optics and its potential applications

Light-field optics is different from conventional image-focusing optics, in which we discuss how correctly an image plane is transferred onto another plane through an optical system. This light-field optics does not deal with an “image” on a plane but conditions of rays in 3D space, instead. As conditions of rays in 3D space represent real 3D scene or 3D objects, 3D object is expressed on 2D plane as encoded data in light-field optics and these recorded data can be decoded back to 3D images reversibly. These exchangeable processes are represented by the relation of light-field camera and light-field display; a 3D image is recorded on 2D plane by a light-field camera, as it is, and is reconstructed from the recorded data by a light-field display. Recorded data on 2D plane by a light-field camera is not a formed image but encoded data. Therefore in light-field optics an optical system is free from limit of optical conjugate. Display plane can be put on any place, for example. Small flat displays can be set on the plane of spectacles instead of lenses and you can see an image through the optical system. It is a thin HMD. An e-book free from reading glasses might be realized in the same way. There are many applications of light-field optics as well as 3D recording and displaying system. I will report theorem of this light field optics and its applications we have made.