Coded aperture techniques for catadioptric omni-directional image defocus deblurring

The defocus blur in catadioptric omni-directional imaging is caused by large apertures and mirror curvatures. This problem becomes more obviously when introducing high resolution sensors. In order to overcome this drawback, this work proposes a simple modification to a conventional catadioptric system that allows for the recovery of an all-focus omni-directional image. The modification is designed by inserting a patterned occluder within the aperture of the camera lens, creating a coded aperture. Then this work introduces a specific deconvolution method, which can recover an all-focus omni-directional image from photograph(s) taken by the camera with coded aperture. Comparing to the conventional aperture, the coded aperture techniques identify the blur scale easier and more accurate. The recovered sharp image eliminates the defocus blur and shows the efficiency of the algorithm. The obtained sharp image can be combined for various catadioptric applications, including omni-directional monitoring systems, intelligent omni-directional systems and robotics, etc.