ECEN 4616/5616
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Project Ideas
Projects may go beyond what has been taught in the class. You should do some outside
research to determine how to solve the problems (what has been done?). Help will be
available with tasks not covered (or lightly covered) in class, such as digital filtering,
beam propagation, hologram creation and analysis, etc.
The less complex and more mainstream a system is (a microscope, say), the more
detailed the optical design will need to be. It isn’t necessary to go the the edge of
knowledge – there are plenty of challenges in designing “ordinary” devices.
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Coronascopes and Planet Finders
o Single telescope coronascope
o StarShades
o Time-averaged signals from repetitive distant occulter
o Other ideas ??
LIDAR
Zoom Camera lens
Progressive Add eyeglass lenses (PALs)
Telescopic Sight
Schlieren photography system
Endoscope (coherent fiber bundle, image relay)
Adaptive optics system for telescope
Imaging spectrometer
Telescopes
o Refractive
o Reflective
o Hybrid
Microscopes
o Light and Dark field
o Fluorescent
o Phase contrast
o 3D
Laser gyroscope
Wavefront Sensor
X-ray or Gamma-ray telescope (coded aperture imaging, or grazing incidence mirror)
Digital Holography:
o Digitally created holograms
o Digital detection of optical holograms (holographic camera)
o Digital analysis of holograms
Magic tricks and optical illusions (design a commercially viable device)
Night vision goggles for active use (Design so that nodal point of goggles are close to
the eye)
Displays:
o Flight simulator display (simulate view out a window)
ECEN 4616/5616
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o Wearable, compact display. (e.g., “Google glass”)
o Automotive Heads-Up-Display (HUD): Integrate IR image with driver’s view
through the windshield.
“Wavefront-Coded” optical systems: Extended depth of field electro-optical system,
including pupil waveplate, digital filter, optimization of system. Targeted tasks might
be:
o Long-distance Iris Identification system
o 2-D bar code reader
Laser light show projector
Scanning, confocal microscope:
o Optical scan through ordinary microscope – Replace camera with scan head
o Parallel scan system: Spinning disk (Nipkow disk)
o Mechanical scan.
Doppler velocimeter
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