Abstract: A plenoptic camera for mobile devices is provided, having a main lens, a microlens array, an image sensor, and a first reflective element configured to reflect the light rays captured by the plenoptic camera before arriving at the image sensor, in order to fold the optical path of the light captured by the camera before impinging the image sensor. Additional reflective elements may also be used to further fold the light path inside the camera. The reflective elements can be prisms, mirrors or reflective surfaces of three-sided optical elements having two refractive surfaces that form a lens element of the main lens. By equipping mobile devices with this plenoptic camera, the focal length can be greatly increased while maintaining the thickness of the mobile device under current constraints.

Abstract: A device and method for obtaining distance information from views is provided. The method generating epipolar images from a light field captured by a light field acquisition device; an edge detection step for detecting, in the epipolar images, edges of objects in the scene captured by the light field acquisition device; in each epipolar image, detecting valid epipolar lines formed by a set of edges; determining the slopes of the valid epipolar lines. The edge detection step may calculate a second spatial derivative for each pixel of the epipolar images and detect the zero-crossings of the second spatial derivatives, to detect object edges with subpixel precision. The method may be performed by low cost mobile devices to calculate real-time depth-maps from depth-camera recordings.

Abstract: A plenoptic camera for mobile devices is provided, having a main lens, a microlens array, an image sensor, and a first reflective element configured to reflect the light rays captured by the plenoptic camera before arriving at the image sensor, in order to fold the optical path of the light captured by the camera before impinging the image sensor. Additional reflective elements may also be used to further fold the light path inside the camera. The reflective elements can be prisms, mirrors or reflective surfaces of three-sided optical elements having two refractive surfaces that form a lens element of the main lens. By equipping mobile devices with this plenoptic camera, the focal length can be greatly increased while maintaining the thickness of the mobile device under current constraints.

Abstract: A microlens array that corrects the problems caused by aberrations and non-paraxiality of microlenses is provided. The microlens array has a plurality of microlenses tilted a tilting degree (?, ?) depending on the position of the microlens in the microlens array. Simultaneously, or alternatively, the distances Pul(i) between optical centres (Pi, Pi?1) of adjacent microlenses depend on their positions in the microlens array. Both these distances Pul(i) and the tilting degrees (?, ?) are dependent normally increasing upon the distance to the center of the microlens array. The size of the microlenses may also increase with the distance to the center of the microlens array. An opaque layer may also be applied covering the edges of adjacent microlenses.

Abstract: A device and method for obtaining depth information from a light field is provided. The method generating a plurality of epipolar images from a light field captured by a light field acquisition device; an edge detection step for detecting, in the epipolar images, edges of objects in the scene captured by the light field acquisition device; for each epipolar image, detecting valid epipolar lines formed by a set of edges; and determining the slopes of the valid epipolar lines. In a preferred embodiment, the method extend the epipolar images with additional information of images captured by additional image acquisition devices and obtain extended epipolar lines. The edge detection step calculates a second spatial derivative for each pixel of the epipolar images and detects the zero-crossings of the second spatial derivatives.

Abstract: A microlens array that corrects the problems caused by aberrations and non-paraxiality of microlenses is provided. The microlens array has a plurality of microlenses tilted a tilting degree (?,?) depending on the position of the microlens in the microlens array. Simultaneously, or alternatively, the distances Pul(i) between optical centres (Pi,Pi?1) of adjacent microlenses depend on their positions in the microlens array. Both these distances Pul(i) and the tilting degrees (?,?) are dependent normally increasing upon the distance to the center of the microlens array. The size of the microlenses may also increase with the distance to the center of the microlens array. An opaque layer may also be applied covering the edges of adjacent microlenses.

Abstract: A device and method for obtaining distance information from views is provided. The method generating epipolar images from a light field captured by a light field acquisition device; an edge detection step for detecting, in the epipolar images, edges of objects in the scene captured by the light field acquisition device; in each epipolar image, detecting valid epipolar lines formed by a set of edges; determining the slopes of the valid epipolar lines. The edge detection step may calculate a second spatial derivative for each pixel of the epipolar images and detect the zero-crossings of the second spatial derivatives, to detect object edges with subpixel precision. The method may be performed by low cost mobile devices to calculate real-time depth-maps from depth-camera recordings.

Abstract: A device and method for obtaining depth information from a light field is provided. The method generating a plurality of epipolar images from a light field captured by a light field acquisition device; an edge detection step for detecting, in the epipolar images, edges of objects in the scene captured by the light field acquisition device; for each epipolar image, detecting valid epipolar lines formed by a set of edges; and determining the slopes of the valid epipolar lines. In a preferred embodiment, the method extend the epipolar images with additional information of images captured by additional image acquisition devices and obtain extended epipolar lines. The edge detection step calculates a second spatial derivative for each pixel of the epipolar images and detects the zero-crossings of the second spatial derivatives.