Stereoscopic Optical System with Dual-Axis Front Group
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Solution Overview
Problem
Conventional stereoscopic imaging systems face challenges in achieving a compact size with high resolution and wide view angles while maintaining a natural-looking stereoscopic image, often requiring large optical systems or compromising on image quality due to limitations in lens design and pupil division mechanisms.
Innovation Solution
The optical system design includes a front group with two central axes and a back group with one central axis, where the central principal rays of the light beams converge before reaching the image plane, allowing for a smaller optical system length and improved image alignment, utilizing a back deflection group with a wedge prism or diffraction grating to manage light convergence and aberrations.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Measurement precision
If conventional stereoscopic imaging systems use two separate optical paths with large baseline distance, then stereoscopic image quality is improved, but the overall system size becomes large
Solution Approach 1:
The patent merges two separate optical paths into a single optical system by using a beam splitter to combine light beams from two front groups into one back group. This allows the stereoscopic imaging function to be achieved within a compact single-path configuration, resolving the contradiction between maintaining stereoscopic image quality and reducing system size.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent uses a beam splitter to redirect light beams in different spatial dimensions, allowing two optical paths to be combined into one physical path. By changing the dimensional arrangement of light propagation, the system achieves compact integration while preserving the stereoscopic imaging capability that requires separate optical paths.
2Volume of moving object
If the optical system length is reduced for compactness, then device size is improved, but image alignment and convergence control become difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The back group acts as an intermediary optical element that receives and processes light beams from two different front groups. It provides a common optical path and convergence point, enabling precise image alignment and convergence control within a compact configuration by mediating between the separate front groups and the image plane.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent employs adjustable optical parameters within the back group, such as focal length and convergence angle, to control light beam convergence. By changing these optical parameters, the system maintains precise image alignment and convergence control even when the overall optical system length is reduced for compactness.
3Measurement precision
If high resolution imaging is achieved with wide view angles, then image quality is improved, but the optical system requires larger aperture and longer focal length
Solution Approach 1:
The optical system is segmented into two front groups and one back group, each with specific functional responsibilities. The front groups capture light from different perspectives with wide view angles, while the back group processes and converges these light beams for high-resolution imaging. This segmentation allows the system to achieve high resolution and wide view angles without requiring a single large-aperture optical element.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
This configuration enables a compact, high-resolution stereoscopic imaging system with a wide view angle, reducing the overall length of the optical system and enhancing image quality by controlling light convergence and aberrations, suitable for small-sized imaging devices.
Implementation Method 1
utilizing a back deflection group with a wedge prism or diffraction grating to manage light convergence and aberrations
Implementation Method 2
utilizing a back deflection group with a wedge prism or diffraction grating to manage light convergence and aberrations
Data Source
AI summary
An optical system 1 includes, in order from an object side to an image plane side, a front group Gf including a first front group Gf1 arranged centering a first front central axis Cf1 and a second front group Gf2 arranged centering a second front group central axis Cf2 as a rotation symmetry axis extending parallel to the first front group central axis Cf1; and a back group Gb arranged centering a single back group central axis Cb. A central principal ray of a first light beam L1 that has passed through the first front group Gf1 and a central principal ray of a second light beam L2 that has passed through the second front group Gf2 do not cross each other from when they exit from the back group Gb to when they reach the image plane.