Micro cameras capable of multiple viewpoint imaging utilizing photoresist microlens arrays

We present micro cameras that provide multiple viewpoint imaging from one single image capture and without moving the camera. The micro cameras are based on lightfield photography where the camera captures the 4-D lightfield and images it onto a 2-D charge-coupled device (CCD) sensor through the use of a microlens array. The microlens array was fabricated using the photoresist reflow process. Two micro cameras were realized. One camera has a 15.2-mm aperture, a 97 × 97 microlens array of 230-μ m pitch size, and a 1-megapixel CCD and is capable of 100 different viewpoints with a viewing angle of approximately 20 °. The other camera has a 9-mm aperture, a 56 × 42 microlens array of 80-μ m pitch size, and a 5-megapixel CCD and is capable of around 1000 different viewpoints with a viewing angle of approximately 4.7 °. The resolution of the images rendered from the two cameras is 97 × 97 and 56 × 42 pixels, respectively.