Adaptive Imaging Technologies & Optical Systems

For more than a quarter of a century after Babcock's suggestion, there have been continual developments in adaptive optics that have focused on atmospheric turbulence corrections making the technologies useful in astronomical telescopes. The success in this area has made the adaptive optic technology useful in other applications ranging from directed energy, microscopy and ophthalmology.

The elements of dynamics that have been applied in adaptive optics can also be applied to open-loop configurations – a device that doesn't have a wavefront sensor; this technology can vary the optical properties of the imaging system to which they are applied.

This device was originally used in the late 1800s when scientists and researchers mimicked the biological processes associated with vision in animals. Following the research on animal vision, lenses for eyeglasses were developed and incorporated variable focal lengths, which offered the wearer adaptive accommodations for those with near – or far-sightedness.

Robert Graham, in 1940, suggested the use of these custom lenses in cameras as a way to enable auto-focusing capabilities. Upgrades have been made to the technology to improve field-of-view (FOV), spectral properties of myriad imaging systems and magnification strengths. Through the use of active components, the size, weight and power requirements will be reduced. With a FOV imaging system, the active elements will eventually replace bulky fisheye lenses for wide-FOV applications. The Defense Advanced Research Project Agency (DARPA) first developed and tested the system, which incorporates a spatially varying element that corrects off-axis aberrations and is gaining popularity for use in small-unmanned aerial systems.