Given a source-image, can optical_bench output the lensed image?

Hello,

Given a lens and a source-image at a known distance away from the lens, I'd like to know what the lensed source looks like at different positions (for example, in case of a real image, I'd like to know what the lensed image looks like on a screen positioned on the other side of the lens.)

Is this possible with optical_bench?

Best Regards, Siavash

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Yes, and I've done it. But perhaps you meant to post this to the sci.optics newsgroup rather than a MATLAB programming forum.

[Siavash]

Thanks a lot for your response! Could you please send me the link to the newsgroup you're referring to? I was not able to find it! (I understand my questions are ridiculously trivial, sorry !)

Also, I can not find a manual on optical_bench that describes what it is capable of. Is there such a thing?

Thanks a lot, Siavash

[Image Analyst]

http://groups.google.com/forum/#!forum/sci.optics

[Siavash]

Hi Image Analyst,

I tried implementing this with optical bench but haven't been very successful. Could you perhaps outline what you did to achieve this? Tracing rays out of every pixel is way too computationally intensive. Is there a standard way of doing this?

Cheers, Siavash

[Image Analyst]

You're talking like "Optical Bench" is a specific software package, such as a third party toolbox for MATLAB. If it is, I don't know about it, so you'd better ask the authors of it.

[Siavash]

I don't understand what you mean...optical bench lets you trace rays, which is what I though one needs to do to see how the image is lensed. When I first asked you if optical bench has the necessary tools for doing this, you said yes, and that you've done it. Is that not what you meant?

[Image Analyst]

An optical bench is a metal platform, usually on legs of air to dampen vibrations. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Optical_bench Here is a photo of one:

I have spent many hours on these. Are you referring to something different than that? Like some kind of ray tracing software?

[Siavash]

Oh yes yes, this is what I'm talking about: http://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/27412-opticalbench

I thought there would be no confusion given your response to my first question, which was:

"Given a lens and a source-image at a known distance away from the lens, I'd like to know what the lensed source looks like at different positions (for example, in case of a real image, I'd like to know what the lensed image looks like on a screen positioned on the other side of the lens.)

Is this possible with optical_bench?"

Do you know any standard go-to software that would do this?

[Image Analyst]

I do not know the names of all File Exchange submissions. You can make up your own simulation of an optical bench in MATLAB, just like that author did. If you have questions about that particular software, ask the author. Sorry, but I don't know the capabilities of the "optical_bench" piece of software.