Light-field Microscopy with a Consumer Light-field Camera

TL;DR

This paper investigates adapting consumer light-field cameras, specifically the Lytro, for microscopy applications, demonstrating potential for low-magnification imaging despite optical limitations.

Contribution

It introduces a virtual imaging mode for the Lytro camera to mitigate optical incompatibilities in light-field microscopy, enabling practical low-magnification applications.

Findings

Achieved a spatial resolution of about 6.25 μm.

Identified limitations in SNR for side views.

Demonstrated feasibility for quality control and surface characterization.

Abstract

We explore the use of inexpensive consumer light- field camera technology for the purpose of light-field mi- croscopy. Our experiments are based on the Lytro (first gen- eration) camera. Unfortunately, the optical systems of the Lytro and those of microscopes are not compatible, lead- ing to a loss of light-field information due to angular and spatial vignetting when directly recording microscopic pic- tures. We therefore consider an adaptation of the Lytro op- tical system. We demonstrate that using the Lytro directly as an oc- ular replacement, leads to unacceptable spatial vignetting. However, we also found a setting that allows the use of the Lytro camera in a virtual imaging mode which prevents the information loss to a large extent. We analyze the new vir- tual imaging mode and use it in two different setups for im- plementing light-field microscopy using a Lytro camera. As a practical result, we show that the camera can be used for low magnification work, as e.g. common in quality control, surface characterization, etc. We achieve a maximum spa- tial resolution of about 6.25{\mu}m, albeit at a limited SNR for the side views.