Patent ID: 8160439

Claim:
An imaging device, comprising: a photosensor that captures light projected onto the photosensor; an objective lens, wherein the objective lens refracts light from a scene located in front of the imaging device to form an image of the scene at an image plane of the objective lens; and an array of microlenses positioned between the objective lens and the photosensor, wherein the image plane is located in front of or behind the array of microlenses, and wherein each microlens is focused on the image plane and not on the objective lens; wherein each microlens projects a respective portion of the image of the scene formed at the image plane by the objective lens onto a respective region of the photosensor to form, on the photosensor, a light-field image comprising a plurality of microimages of the scene, each microimage corresponding to a respective microlens in the array of microlenses.