Wide field-of-view foveated imaging system

We have designed and demonstrated a simple, wide field-of-view (FOV=60\circ) foveated imaging system utilizing a deformable mirror. The deformable mirror is used to dynamically correct the off-axis aberrations that limit the useful FOV of the system. The system mimics the operation of human eye through creating an image with variable spatial resolution and can be made significantly smaller and more compact than a conventional wide FOV system. Experiments show that this system can be used in many areas where size, weight, and data transmission bandwidth are critical.