Fwd: Plenoptics

[Peter Werner]

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I just wanted to forward along a discussion that started on the  
Microscopy Listserv, since I think it might be of interest here. In  
particular, I have a number of questions about light field imaging,  
which I'll put in a followup email.

Peter

Begin forwarded message:

> From: Peter Werner <[hidden email]>
> Date: December 17, 2011 9:26:04 PM PST
> To: [hidden email]
> Cc: [hidden email]
> Subject: Re: [Microscopy] Plenoptics
>
> Yes, it has. In fact, a few weeks ago, I gave a talk on the subject  
> to the advanced microscopy class in which I'm instructional  
> assistant. The Stanford Computer Graphics Lab, which also developed  
> the prototype for the plenoptic Lytro consumer camera, has had a  
> light field microscope in development for several years now:
>
> http://www.graphics.stanford.edu/projects/lfmicroscope/
> http://www.graphics.stanford.edu/papers/lfmicroscope/lfmicroscope-sig06-mpeg4.mov
>
> The light field module is incorporated into the light path between  
> the objective and the camera rather than into the camera itself. I'm  
> not sure if the Raytrix camera has ever been used on an unmodified  
> microscope, but considering that an optical tube presents a focal  
> plane and multiple planes of out of focus light, I don't see why  
> this wouldn't work. Then again, this is probably sub-optimal for  
> light field microscopy, as the Stanford lab has gone through the  
> trouble of putting together a full light field microscope design,  
> even if is a fairly simple modification of an regular transmitted  
> light/fluorescence microscope. If you look at the other pages on the  
> Stanford site, they note that they've added a light field  
> illumination system to the design as well:
>
> http://www.graphics.stanford.edu/projects/lfmicroscope/2008.html
>
> Light field microscopes use 3D deconvolution to get a fully focused  
> image, which surprisingly works well with 4D light field  
> information. In fact, because of z-resolution limitations, the ray  
> tracing software used with light field cameras like the Lytro does  
> not work in light field microscopy.
>
> The Stanford light field camera and microscope design is limited in  
> terms of spatial resolution as well, however, the light field camera  
> project at Adobe claims to have overcome this limitation:
>
> http://www.tgeorgiev.net/
> http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z7SN7808ANI
>
> The Adobe project has mostly worked on cameras, but they have a  
> patent published for a plenoptic objective lens:
>
> http://www.google.com/patents/US7872796.pdf
>
> In addition, Rudolf Oldenberg of MBL has published on a polarized  
> light field microscope design he's developed. Poster here:
>
> http://www.focusonmicroscopy.org/2009/PDF/359_Oldenbourg.pdf
>
> This is a very interesting and promising technology, and I'm anxious  
> to see how it develops. I hope to be able to try this technology out  
> for myself inside of a few years.
>
> Peter G. Werner
> Program Assistant, Merritt College Microscopy Program
>
>
> On Dec 17, 2011, at 3:59 PM, [hidden email] wrote:
>
>> Hi list:
>>
>>
>> Just came across an article on Popular Science, describing the  
>> plenoptics camera, which has an array of micro-lenses in front of  
>> the image sensor for 3D imaging as well "perfect focusing".
>>
>>
>> http://www.popsci.com/gadgets/article/2011-05/cameras-40000-lenses-help-salvage-blurry-images
>>
>>
>> Does anyone know if this technology have been used on any kind of  
>> microscopes?
>>
>>
>> Merry Christmas!
>>
>>
>> Zhaojie
>>
>>
>> Zhaojie Zhang, Ph.D.
>> Director, Jenkins Microscopy Facility
>> University of Wyoming