Light field cameras have been used for 3-dimensional geometrical measurement or refocusing of captured photo. In this paper, we propose the light field acquiring method using a spherical mirror array. By employing a mirror array and two cameras, a virtual camera array that captures an object from around it can be generated. Since large number of virtual cameras can be constructed from two real cameras, an affordable high-density camera array can be achieved using this method. Furthermore, the spherical mirrors enable the capturing of large objects as compared to the previous methods. We conducted simulations to capture the light field, and synthesized arbitrary viewpoint images of the object with observation from 360 degrees around it. The ability of this system to refocus assuming a large aperture is also confirmed. We have also built a prototype which approximates the proposal to conduct a capturing experiment in order to ensure the system’s feasibility.
Hiroaki Yano, Tomohiro Yendo, "Wide-viewing-zone Light-field Capturing Using Turtleback Convex Reflector" in Journal of Imaging Science and Technology, 2022, pp 060406-1 - 060406-11, https://doi.org/10.2352/J.ImagingSci.Technol.2022.66.6.060406