Optical design and development of a snapshot light-field laryngoscope

The convergence of recent advances in optical fabrication and digital processing yields a generation of imaging technology - light-field (LF) cameras which bridge the realms of applied mathematics, optics, and high-performance computing. Herein for the first time, we introduce the paradigm of LF imaging into laryngoscopy. The resultant probe can image the three-dimensional shape of vocal folds within a single camera exposure. Furthermore, to improve the spatial resolution, we developed an image fusion algorithm, providing a simple solution to a long-standing problem in LF imaging.