Abstract

Centuries-old rules of optics design (e.g., sensors must be at the focal plane) and informal rules-of-thumb (e.g., the lenses in a camera triplet should be positive-negative-positive) are becoming obsolete in the new era when digital image processing is included into the data path. Rather than being guided by the laws of physics governing light and materials, design principles will be guided by principles and laws of information as well.

© 2009 Optical Society of America