Patent ID: 8559017

Claim:
A method for aligning a plurality of sub-apertures of a multiple-aperture imaging system, the method comprising: identifying one sub-aperture of the plurality of sub-apertures to serve as a reference sub-aperture; actuating a piston associated with the reference sub-aperture in a series of piston steps of a substantially known amount; collecting data relating to each image of a plurality of images of an object, each image corresponding to a respective piston step; compiling the data, with a processor, into a three-dimensional data cube; detecting, with the processor, a plurality of fringe patterns positioned within the three-dimensional data cube; determining, with the processor, a relative location of each sub-aperture of the plurality of sub-apertures based on a location of each fringe pattern of the plurality of fringe patterns within the three-dimensional data cube; and actuating a piston associated with at least one sub-aperture based, at least in part, on the relative location to move the at least one sub-aperture into alignment with another sub-aperture and repeating with each remaining sub-aperture until all sub-apertures are at substantially a same height.