Optical 3D sensing by a single camera with a lens of large spherical aberration

We propose a new principle to measure the 3D position of a light source by a video camera with a lens of large spherical aberration. The light source is transformed into a ring image by the large spherical aberration of the lens; the ring´s center position and diameter, respectively, determine the direction and distance to the light source. We clarify the characteristics of the ring images, and succeed in measuring the 3D position by processing the video images of the optical rings in real time.