Digital Lenses

在过去的二十年里，微电子机械系统(MEMS)领域已经发展了惊人的能力，可能的应用才刚刚开始掌握。微技术与光学相结合形成微光机电系统(MOEMS)已经有了相当多的应用，其中投影技术是最突出的。近年来，这些器件在光网络的交换中被证明是非常有价值的。这里我们最关心的MOEMS技术是数字微镜阵列。这些设备由一个芯片组成，上面覆盖着一系列小镜子，每个小镜子的方向都可以单独控制。我们建议将这类技术用于成像目的，而不是投影。通过使用为计算机视觉中的全方位传感器设计开发的数学工具，这些阵列可以被动态地配置为模仿曲面镜的行为。此外，由于其小尺寸，微镜阵列可以非常迅速地改变状态。这种技术的潜在应用很多，包括全方位传感、高分辨率图像获取和监视。该IGMS项目由MPS多学科活动办公室(OMA)和数学科学司(DMS)联合支持。

During the past twenty years, the field of micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) has developed remarkable capabilities and the possible applications are only beginning to be grasped. The combination of micro technology with optics to form micro-optical-electro-mechanical systems, or MOEMS, has already borne a considerable number of applications, projection technology being the most prominent. Recently, these devices have proved invaluable for switching in optical networks.The MOEMS technology that we are most concerned with here is the digital micromirror array. These devices consist of a chip covered with an array of small mirrors, each of whose orientation may be separately controlled. We propose to use this type of technology for the purposes of imaging, rather than projection. By using mathematical tools developed for omnidirectional sensor design in computer vision, these arrays may be dynamically configured to mimic the behavior of curved mirrors. Additionally, due to their small size, micromirror arrays can change state very rapidly. The potential applications of such a technology are numerous, including as omnidirectional sensing, high resolution image acquisition and surveillance.This IGMS project is jointly supported by the MPS Office of Multidisciplinary Activities (OMA) and the Division of Mathematical Sciences (DMS).