Patent ID: 7408718

Claim:
An apparatus, comprising: an optical sensor comprising photocells each having a respective photocell active area in a capture plane; a lens system comprising lenses each operable to focus light from a respective subfield of a scene into a corresponding focused beam; and an optical stop system comprising aperture systems each confining a corresponding one of the focused beams to a respective illumination area in the capture plane, wherein each of the aperture systems is defined by a cavity having an input aperture and an output aperture, wherein the size of the output aperture is greater than the size of the input aperture, wherein the shape of each of the output aperture and the input aperture is a polygon, and wherein the output aperture is configured relative to the configuration of the input aperture and in such a way that causes the cavity defined thereby to confine the illumination area of its respective aperture system in such a way that the illumination area does not overlap with the illumination area of adjacent aperture systems.