Axially and transversally super-resolved imaging and ranging with random aperture coding

In this paper we present a new approach allowing improved imaging capabilities while using imaging lenses with higher tolerances to fabrication errors. The idea is to attach a random phase to the aperture plane of the imaging lens, which generates a random phase in the optical transfer function distribution. This phase is a priori known and it is very much dependent on the range to the object. The randomness of this phase allows simultaneously increasing the depth of focus as well as estimating the range to the various objects in the field of view of the imager. In addition it allows increasing the geometrical resolution of the imager by orthogonal coding of the spatial spectral bands prior to their folding due to the under-sampling by the detector (aliased information).