A Computational Hyperspectral Imaging Technique

A novel spectral imaging technique is introduced based on a highly dispersive imaging lens system. The chromatic aberration of the lens system is utilized to spread the spectral content of the object over a focal distance. Two three-dimensional surface reconstruction algorithms, depth from focus and depth from defocus, are applied to images captured by dispersive lens system. Using these algorithms, the spectral imager is able to relate either the location of focused image or the amount of defocus at the imaging detector to the spectral content of the object. A spectral imager with similar to 5 nm spectral resolution is designed based on this technique. The spectral and spatial resolutions of the introduced technique are independent and can be improved simultaneously. Simulation and experimental results are presented.