Plenoptiska

Plenoptiska, or plenoptic optics, is a field of imaging that studies and uses the plenoptic function, the distribution of light rays in a scene across both position and direction. A plenoptic camera captures this information by placing a microlens array between the main lens and the image sensor. Each microlens samples light arriving from different angles, producing a four‑dimensional representation of the scene’s light field. With computational processing, the recorded data can be manipulated after capture to render different focal planes or perspectives without rephotography.

History and development: The plenoptic concept was formalized in the early 1990s by researchers such as Adelson and Bergen. Practical implementations emerged in the 2000s, and consumer interest grew with commercial plenoptic cameras, notably Lytro, introduced in the early 2010s under the leadership of Ren Ng.

Applications: Plenoptiska approaches enable post‑capture refocusing, depth estimation and 3D reconstruction, and controllable viewpoint rendering. They are used in computational photography, virtual reality, cinematography, and research in microscopy and robotics.

Limitations and challenges: Capturing directional information requires trade‑offs in spatial resolution and light efficiency. The data is large and demands substantial computation for processing, rendering, and calibration. System design often involves careful optical and algorithmic trade‑offs.

Terminology: In Swedish, the term plenoptiska or plenoptik is used for plenoptic imaging techniques. The field intersects with light-field photography and computational imaging and includes both microlens‑based camera designs and software‑based reconstructions.