Integrated analysis of industrial limitations and image quality: an end-to-end design approach

There is a trend in optical system design toward explicitly considering real-world industrial demands in the metrics to be optimized, from which emerges a cost-performance trade-off. Another relevant recent tendency is the so-called end-to-end design, where the design metric is an expected quality index of the final image, after digital restoration. We propose an integrated approach for analyzing the cost-performance trade-off in end-to-end designs. We exemplify it with a simple optical model where the cost is determined by the inclusion of an aspherical surface. We show that the resulting optimal trade-off configurations when applying an end-to-end design are substantially different from a conventional design. Such differences, as well as the increase in performance, are especially significant for lower-cost configurations.

Automated summary

There is a trend in optical system design to consider real-world industrial demands and optimize the metrics for cost-performance trade-off. The end-to-end design, with the design metric as the expected quality index of the final image, is also gaining popularity. This article proposes an integrated approach to analyze the cost-performance trade-off in end-to-end designs, demonstrating its effectiveness with a simple optical model. The results show significant differences and performance improvements, particularly for lower-cost configurations.