Patent ID: 8427548

Claim:
A digital image capturing apparatus, comprising: an image pickup unit obtaining light field data to change a view of a captured image and refocus the captured image, including: a modulator performing optical modulation on light beams; and plural light separation elements, where each of plural light separation elements is configured to redirect at least two incident light beams, incident to a respective separation element from different directions, toward a same portion of a photo sensor array so the at least two incident light beams are overlapping at the same portion, wherein the same portion is different for each of the plural separation elements; and a data processor generating a refocusing image using light field data captured by the photo sensor array, with the data processor demodulating the light field data of each same portion of the photo sensor array by separating each of the respective overlapping light beams of each same portion of the photo sensor array into separate identified light beams based on the modulation and identifying different incident directions of each of the separated light beams relative to the respective light separation element and at least one input aperture of the image pickup unit directing the at least two incident light beams toward the plural light separation elements, wherein the plural light separation elements include a main lens and a microlens array disposed between the main lens and the photo sensor array capturing the light beams, wherein the microlens array orients light beams collected from the main lens toward the photo sensor array through the microlens array, wherein a plurality of the overlapping light beams converge on the same portion of the photo sensor array and include directional resolution information, the modulator includes a 2-dimensional orthogonal mask to modulate the light beams using a first function applied to light beams passing through an upper portion of the mask and using a second function applied to light beams passing through a lower portion of the mask, the first and second functions being mathematically orthogonal to one another, the photo sensor array obtains an image by summing a first view representing light beams passing through the upper portion of the mask convolved with the first function, with a second view representing light beams passing through the lower portion of the mask convolved with the second function, and the directional resolution of the photo sensor array is greater than or equal to twice a spatial sampling rate of the photo sensor array.