Our system reliably estimates point spread functions of a given optical system, enabling the capture of high-quality imagery through poorly performing lenses. From left to right: Camera with our lens system containing only a single glass element (the plano-convex lens lying next to the camera in the left image), unprocessed input image, deblurred result.


Abstract

Modern imaging optics are highly complex systems consisting of up to two dozen individual optical elements. This complexity is required in order to compensate for the geometric and chromatic aberrations of a single lens, including geometric distortion, field curvature, wavelength-dependent blur, and color fringing. In this paper, we propose a set of computational photography techniques that remove these artifacts, and thus allow for post-capture correction of images captured through uncompensated, simple optics which are lighter and significantly less expensive. Specifically, we estimate per-channel, spatially-varying point spread functions, and perform non-blind deconvolution with a novel cross-channel term that is designed to specifically eliminate color fringing.


Paper, Code and Video

Paper
Low-Res (1MB):   [SimpleLensImaging_Heide2013-lowres.pdf]
High-Res (43MB): [SimpleLensImaging_Heide2013.pdf]
Code [DeconvolutionColorPrior.zip]
Video [SimpleLensImaging_Heide2013.mp4]
Supplemental material [Supplement_SimpleLensImaging_Heide2013.zip]




Results

Results using a single planoconvex lens at f/4.5 are shown below. Move your mouse over results to switch between blurred input and deconvolved result. The hover images are preview images optimized for webbrowsers. Please click on the links below each result for the full resolution images.

Full-res images: Original, Corrected     PSFs: R, G, B
 
Full-res images: Original, Corrected     PSFs: R, G, B
 
Full-res images: Original, Corrected     PSFs: R, G, B
 
Full-res images: Original, Corrected     PSFs: R, G, B
 
Full-res images: Original, Corrected     PSFs: R, G, B
 
Full-res images: Original, Corrected     PSFs: R, G, B
 
Full-res images: Original, Corrected     PSFs: R, G, B
 

Additional results

The links below show results where even images from standard camera lenses benefit from our method. Furthermore also a multispectral reconstructions and PSF measurements are shown. For a full list of all of our results for various single lenses with different settings, standard camera lenses, multispectal cameras and comparisons to other methods see our supplemental material.

[Standard camera lens and multispectral camera results]


All images are © ACM, 2013, reproduced here by permission of ACM for your personal use. Not for redistribution. Some of the source graphics on which these works were based are copyrighted by third parties and used with their permission. See the Acknowledgements section of our paper for a list of third-party sources.