Digital images and related methodologies
An imaging system, methodology, and various applications are provided to facilitate optical imaging performance. The system contains a sensor having one or more receptors and an image transfer medium to scale the sensor and receptors in accordance with resolvable characteristics of the medium, and as defined with certain ratios. Also provided are digital images that contain a plurality of image pixels, each image pixel containing information from about one sensor pixel, each sensor pixel containing substantially all information from about one associated diffraction limited spot in an object plane. Methods of making digital images are provided.
1. A method of making a digital image, comprising capturing object data on a sensor pixel of a pixelated sensor comprising at least two sensor pixels, wherein substantially all object data comprised in each diffraction limited spot in the object plane is projected onto about one associated sensor pixel on the pixelated sensor; and forming a viewable digital image comprising image pixels, each image pixel displaying image data from about one sensor pixel.
2. The method of claim 1 , wherein each pixel on the pixelated sensor comprises at least about 60% of the object data from the associated diffraction limited spot.
3. The method of claim 1 , wherein each pixel on the pixelated sensor comprises at least about 70% of the object data from the associated diffraction limited spot.
4. The method of claim 1 , wherein a ratio of diffraction limited spot size in the object plane to projected pixel size in the object plane is from about 1:1.9 to about 1.9:1.
5. The method of claim 1 , wherein substantially all object data is captured from about one associated diffraction limited spot through a multiple lens configuration, the multiple lens configuration comprising a first lens positioned toward the object plane and a second lens positioned toward the pixelated sensor, the first lens sized to have a focal length smaller than the second lens.
6. A method of increasing the signal to noise ratio in making a viewable digital image, comprising collecting substantially all spatial frequencies of interest from a diffraction limited spot in the object plane projected onto about one sensor pixel on a pixelated sensor comprising at least two sensor pixels.
7. The method of claim 6 , wherein each sensor pixel on the sensor collects at least about 60% of the spatial frequencies of interest from an associated diffraction limited spot.
8. The method of claim 6 , wherein each sensor pixel on the sensor collects at least about 80% of the spatial frequencies of interest from an associated diffraction limited spot.
9. The method of claim 6 , wherein a ratio of diffraction limited spot size in the object plane to projected pixel size in the object plane is from about 1:1.9 to about 1.9:1.
10. The method of claim 6 , wherein substantially all spatial frequencies of interest are collected from about one associated diffraction limited spot through a multiple lens configuration, the multiple lens configuration comprising a first lens positioned toward the object plane and a second lens positioned toward the sensor, the first lens sized to have a focal length smaller than the second lens.
11. A method of forming a viewable digital image, comprising capturing object data on a sensor comprising pixels, wherein each sensor pixel receives substantially all object data comprised in about one associated diffraction limited spot in the object plane and each sensor pixel generates image data; and applying Nyquist criterion to the image data generated by each sensor pixel to form corresponding image pixels.
12. The method of claim 11 , wherein each pixel on the sensor receives at least about 60% of the object data comprised in an associated diffraction limited spot.
13. The method of claim 11 , wherein a ratio of diffraction limited spot size in the object plane to projected pixel size in the object plane is from about 1:1.9 to about 1.9:1.
14. The method of claim 11 , wherein substantially all object data is captured through a multiple lens configuration, the multiple lens configuration comprising a first lens positioned toward the object plane and a second lens positioned toward the sensor, the first lens sized to have a focal length smaller than the second lens.