TOMBO: thin observation module by bound optics

A typical imaging lens requires the same order of working distance as the diameter. As far as the conventional imaging system is employed, thickness of the system is determined by the diameter which is related to the field area of the imaging devices. One motivation of our research is to break through the thickness restriction by replacing an imaging lens with an array of microlenses. The system is called TOMBO (thin observation module by bound optics) after the Japanese name for the dragonfly. Effective cooperation of the compact compound-imaging system and image reconstruction processing enables us to capture high-resolution images with very thin hardware configuration.