Spectral lens enables a minimalist framework for hyperspectral imaging

TL;DR

This paper introduces a spectral lens that captures both spatial and spectral data, enabling a minimalist, compact hyperspectral imaging framework that can be integrated into standard cameras for portable applications.

Contribution

The authors develop a spectral lens using planar liquid crystal optics, allowing hyperspectral imaging to be achieved by replacing standard camera lenses with this new component.

Findings

The hyperspectral camera demonstrates high spectral and spatial resolution.

The framework is ultra-compact and compatible with existing camera systems.

Experiments confirm excellent performance across various targets.

Abstract

Conventional lens-based imaging techniques have long been limited to capturing only the intensity distribution of objects, resulting in the loss of other crucial dimensions such as spectral data. Here, we report a spectral lens that captures both spatial and spectral information, and further demonstrate a minimalist framework wherein hyperspectral imaging can be readily achieved by replacing lenses in standard cameras with our spectral lens. As a paradigm, we capitalize on planar liquid crystal optics to implement the proposed framework. Our experiments with various targets show that the resulting hyperspectral camera exhibits excellent performance in both spectral and spatial domains. With merits such as ultra-compactness and strong compatibility, our framework paves a practical pathway for advancing hyperspectral imaging apparatus toward miniaturization, with great potential for portable applications.