Cross talk elimination using an aperture for recording elemental images of integral photography

A major problem with integral photography using a lens array is overlapping recordings (cross talk) between elemental images. Another problem is the decrease in the number of pixels in the elemental images. We describe two methods (including analyses) of manipulating the aperture of a telecentric optical system to improve these problems. The first method locates the aperture on the focal plane of a field lens. The advantage of this method is that cross talk can be reduced without changing the size of the whole optical system. The second method establishes a telecentric optical system between objects and the lens array. The advantage of this method, even though the whole optical system becomes bigger, is that cross talk can be completely eliminated. In addition, the number of pixels in the elemental images can be increased by varying the aperture position sequentially with respect to time. We also describe how cross talk is reduced in both methods by taking diffraction into consideration. Experimental results are presented to verify this reduction.