An optical/digital incoherent image processing system for an extended depth of field

Abstract

A severely defocused incoherent system has isolated zeros in its optical transfer function(OTF); therefore, an exact inverse filtering cannot be performed. It has been established that, by using an annular aperture in an optical system, the depth of focus can be extended. Isolated zeros in the OTF can therefore be avoided by choosing an annular aperture with a proper radius ratio. However, in the process of increasing the depth of focus of the system, this method results in a loss of image contrast. An annular pass filter can be used to restore this loss in contrast. A simple hybrid optical/digital image processing system in which a TV camera is coupled with an annular aperture is considered. The annular-pass filtering to compensate for the loss of contrast is performed by a digital computer. The experimental results are presented.