Patent ID: 7620309

Claim:
A camera, comprising: a main lens which receives light from objects in an object field and directs the received light onto an image plane of the camera; a photodetector array located at the image plane of the camera, which captures the received light to produce an image; and a multidimensional array of optical elements located between the object field and the main lens, wherein each of the optical elements comprises a lens, wherein each optical element in the array receives light from the object field from a different angle than the other optical elements in the array of optical elements and consequently directs a view of the object field into the main lens, whereby the photodetector array receives a different view of the object field from each optical element in the multidimensional array of optical elements; wherein each different view of the object field is received at a separate location on the photodetector array to produce a multidimensional array of different views of the object field at the photodetector array.