Influence of microlens array manufacturing errors on light-field imaging

A microlens array (MLA) is a key optical element for four-dimensional light-field analysis in a light-field camera. MLA manufacturing errors affect light-field imaging, but their effects, especially on the physical imaging process and image-degradation mechanism, have not entirely been studied. In this paper, we develop a manufacturing-error model for MLA and quantitatively analyze raw images and refocused images using image quality evaluation indexes. The results indicate that manufacturing errors cause changes in image features including brightness, resolution, and spot position. The image-features undergo changes and the degree of degradation caused by different error types showed great differences.