Investigations on the potential application of machine vision lenses for depth measurement by exploiting chromatic aberrations

Chromatic (spectral) aberrations are image imperfections that are disadvantageous for standard image processing tasks and are typically compensated through the application of different types of glass during lens design. The longitudinal chromatic aberration causes a relative unsharpness over different spectral channels. Since this error is corrected in most multi-chromatic lenses, this paper investigates to which extent the shift of the focal planes in a standard lens can be used specifically for image processing applications. Theoretical investigations of the longitudinal chromatic aberration are carried out. Based on this, conditions and a method to generate a 3D depth reconstruction out of different spectral channels are presented.