Novel local variable magnification imaging optical system based on liquid lens

Traditional optical imaging system cannot achieve full field of view and high magnification simultaneously. Enslaved to resolution of detector array, the imaging field vision and magnification cannot be satisfied at the same time. Zoom lens can only vary the magnification for the center field of view, and it is not able to show the large observation field of view and local optical magnified image of either area at one glance. When the focal length of zoom lens reaches the long end, the field of vision will reduce, which leads to missing of marginal targets. The shortage of traditional imaging technique will entail inconvenience. In this paper, we propose a new scheme of geometrical optics imaging system combining two imaging optical path of different focal length in one optical system and the two optical paths image on the same detector array simultaneously. The local optical path can image for arbitrary position of targets and its focal length is variable using liquid lens. The final local variable magnification imaging optical system is shown as example. We offer the detailed design and simulation results, which shows that this kind of optical path configure can image for large field of view and arbitrary local detail at the same sight and maintain acceptable imaging performance.