Design of a dynamic dual-foveated imaging system.

A new kind of dynamic dual-foveated imaging system in the infrared band is designed and optimized in this paper. Dual-foveated imaging refers to the variation in spatial resolution at the two selected fields across the image. Such variable resolution imaging system is suitable for a variety of applications including monitoring, recognition, and remote operation of unmanned aerial vehicle. In this system, a transmissive spatial light modulator (SLM) is used as an active optical element which is located near the image plane instead of pupil plane creatively in order to divide the two selected fields.