Design Of A New Real-time Polarization Imaging System

Traditional polarized imaging system always has the problem of poor real-time performance and low energy utilization rate,which leading to less valid information and more image errors.For this,a new real-time polarization imaging system is proposed.The system makes full use of the spectral principle of the Wollaston prism.It combines the symmetrical structure of the telecentric lens and the collimating lens,and it adopts the two-axis imaging system to obtain two polarized images on single detector array at the same time.The result shows that the difference between the two orthogonal polarized image is within a pixel size,which is convenient for later image processing.The specific and main innovations of this paper are described as following:(1)In this paper,application requirements of polarization imaging are elaborated and the traditional polarization imaging systems are analyzed.We have demonstrated the advantages and disadvantages of time-sharing polarization imaging system,division-of-amplitude polarization imaging system,division-of-aperture polarization imaging system,division-of-focal plane polarization imaging system.And the result has proved that it is necessary to study new timely-polarization imaging system.(2)Through the analysis of the imaging in chaotic media,it has shown that only two polarized images are needed for polarization image processing.(3)For the requirement of polarization imaging in real time,the traditional four possible system structures are analyzed and compared.At last,the Wollaston prism polarized imaging system based on parallel light incidence is used in the paper.The structure and design concept of the system are described in detail.(4)The design of each component is optimized,such as the telecentric lens system,the collimating lens system,the Wollaston prism,and the imaging system.The optimization degree of the system is judged by various aberration analysis and aberration data.The imaging characteristics of the single polarization imaging system and the dual polarization imaging system are compared.From the close distance imaging and the distance imaging,the size difference of two polarized imaging can be corrected within the algorithm range.In summary,this paper discusses the theoretical basis of system design from the demand of real-time polarization imaging system.In the design process,the telecentric lens system is designed for that the telecentric system can reduce the influence of off-axis aberrations.Due to that the coma aberration and distortion can be reduced in completely symmetrical structure,the design of the collimating system is based on the inversion design of telecentric lens system.The splitting angle of the Wollaston prism is related to the bottom angle.However,the large corner will increase the asymmetry of o-light and the e-light.According to the calculation at last,we choose Wollaston prism structure whose bottom angle is 30°,and make use of double Wollaston prism combination to increase the system’s discrete angle instead.In order to correct the astigmatism introduced by Wollaston prism system,imaging lens system adopts coexist structure of double agglutination lens and ingle lens groups.According to the system imaging evaluation function and the simulation imaging results,the new real-time polarization imaging system is well done.The design can improve the real-time performance,the energy utilization,and the resolution of the traditional polarization imaging system.The proposed system also has broad application prospects in the fields of imaging detection underwater,astronomical observation,remote sensing,medical science and so on.