The bifocal camera has been developed with a depth of field from 3 cm to 1.7 km

Just like human eyes, cameras also have problems. One is depth of field: usually the focus can only be one distance at a time. Objects that are closer or far away become increasingly blurry. A bifocal camera has now been presented in the scientific journal Nature, which aims to largely circumvent this problem.

Two levels of sharpness

Researchers are said to have succeeded in developing a bifocal lens that can focus at two different distances at the same time. The model used in construction at this time was The extinct trilobite Dalmanitina SocialisWho has this ability. This allowed her to simultaneously identify nearby food and predators at a distance.

To replicate this ability, researchers have relied on several etched lenses. These can refract incoming light rays differently depending on their polarization. As a result, left-polarized light is imaged at a different focal plane than right-polarized light. The end result is a pure image at a distance of 3 cm and 1.7 km at the same time.

Camera-captured images are assembled into a consistently sharp overview using deep learning.

source: temper nature





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The neural network is also used to sharply visualize the area between them. This can also apparently calculate sharp images of the distances between them, so that a camera developed with its bifocal lens can produce images with an enormous depth of field. It is said that there are many possible uses for such recordings: in their work, the researchers talk, for example, about microscopy and machine image recognition as well as classical photography.

source: temper nature / Phys.org