Automated calibration and optical testing of the AWARE-2 gigapixel multiscale camera

Gigapixel-class cameras present new challenges in calibration, mechanical testing, and optical performance evaluation. The AWARE-2 gigapixel camera has nearly one-hundred micro-cameras covering a 120 degree wide by 40 degree tall field of view, with one pixel spanning an 8 arcsec field angle. Viewing the imagery requires stitching the sub-images together by applying an accurate mapping of registration parameters over the entire field of view. For this purpose, a testbed has been developed to automatically calibrate and test each micro-camera in the array. Using translation stages, rotation stages, and a spatial light modulator for object space, this testbed can project any test scene into a specified micro-camera, building up image quality metrics and a registration look-up table over the entire array. © 2013 SPIE-IS&T.