Patent Document ID: 6097856
Application ID: 09113523
Patent Status: 1

Claim One:
1. An imaging system for imaging an object located in a target region, said imaging system including, in combination: an optical assembly having an optical axis, said optical assembly including: a.) amplitude masking means for receiving light and transmitting light having an attenuated amplitude that varies as a function of position within said amplitude masking means, said function being substantially free of discontinuities; b.) imaging means for forming an intermediate image of said object, said image having imaging errors that include at least a misfocus error that is dependent upon the distance between the imaging means and the object; and c.) phase masking means for receiving light and modifying the phase thereof as a function of position within said phase masking means; image sensing means, including an array of photosensitive elements, for receiving said intermediate image and converting said image into an intermediate image signal that includes a plurality of elements which are distorted by said imaging errors; and processing means for: a.) providing a generalized recovery function that, in the frequency domain, includes at least the reciprocal of the calculated non-ideal Incoherent Optical Transfer Function (IOTF) of said optical assembly, under a condition of approximately optimum focus; and b.) applying said recovery function to one of a frequency domain and a spatial domain representation of said intermediate image signal to produce a final image signal that includes a set of elements which together define a representation of said object which is largely free of those of said imaging errors which have been taken into account in the calculation of said calculated non-ideal IOTF.