Structural design and image processing of a spherical artificial compound eye

This manuscript presents a design method and corresponding image processing algorithms of a spherical artificial compound eye. The artificial compound eye is composed of multi-dimensional sub-eye imaging channels pointing to different directions. By using the principle of geometrical optics and imaging optics, the design method of the multi-dimensional imaging structure was analyzed. To satisfy the practical requirement of the structure, the image processing algorithm based on the segmentation rotation projection technology was studied. In order to validate the above design method and image processing algorithm, a spherical compound eye consisting of 37 imaging channels was fabricated and the corresponding imaging experiments were carried out. The results show that the field of view (FOV) of the imaging structure is up to 118° and the structure meets the practical requirements.