Holographic light field imaging device and method of using the same

A holographic light field imaging device, comprising:

• at least one compression array;
• at least one image sensor;
• at least one housing;
• wherein said at least one compression array comprises one or more encoding masks, one or more dielectric spacers, a diffuser, and a refractive surface;
• wherein light striking said refractive surface creates an incident light field;
• wherein said incident light field is passed through said one or more encoding masks and one or more dielectric surfaces, such that said incident light field is reduced from a four-dimension representation to a two-dimension representation, such that a dimensionally-reduced light field is created;
• wherein said refractive surface comprises a locally-positive curvature to increase a spatial entropy of said dimensionally-reduced light field;
• wherein said diffuser scatters said dimensionally-reduced light field in a substantially random manner, such that a diffused and dimensionally-reduced light field is created;
• wherein said image sensor comprises a relay lens and a digital light sensor;
• wherein said relay lens relays said diffused and dimensionally-reduced light field to said digital light sensor;
• wherein said housing substantially prevents stray light from being relayed to said digital light sensor;
• wherein said two-dimension representation of said diffused and dimensionally-reduced light field is recorded by said digital light sensor, such that one or more reduced two-dimensional images are created;
• and
• wherein said one or more reduced two-dimensional images are processed by a computing device, which comprises a reconstruction algorithm that inverts said one or more reduced two-dimensional images to reconstruct said incident light field.

A holographic light field imaging device, comprising:

• at least one compression array;
• at least one image sensor;
• wherein light striking said at least one compression array creates an incident light field;
• wherein said incident light field is passed through said at least one compression array, such that said incident light field is reduced from a four-dimension representation to a two-dimension representation, such that a dimensionally-reduced light field is created;
• and
• wherein said two-dimension representation of said dimensionally-reduced light field is recorded by said image sensor, such that one or more reduced two-dimensional images are created.