Patent ID: 7718940

Claim:
A compound-eye imaging apparatus, comprising: a plurality of imaging optical lenses arranged in substantially the same plane; and a plurality of imaging regions, each of which comprises a large number of pixels that are arranged in a plane perpendicular to respective optical axes of the plurality of imaging optical lenses, for converting into a plurality of pieces of image information a plurality of subject images that are formed respectively by the plurality of imaging optical lenses; wherein the apparatus further comprises a mechanism of rotating the plurality of imaging optical lenses and the plurality of imaging regions relative to each other in the plane perpendicular to the optical axes of the plurality of imaging optical lenses, and when viewed along a direction parallel with the optical axes, at least one straight line connecting corresponding points in at least one pair of the subject images that are formed by at least one pair of the imaging optical lenses is inclined with respect to a direction in which the pixels are arranged.