Hideaki ISHIZUKI¹ and Hiroshi KOBAYASHI²

¹Touko-rikaki Co. Ltd., Higasi-Tokorozawa, Tokorozawa, Saitama, 359 Japan, ²Waseda University, Department of Applied Physics, Okubo, Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo, 169 Japan

(Received April 18, 1996; Accepted July 23, 1996)

Optical properties of a single hyperboloid lens cut by a lathe were investigated. The lens has a characteristic of focusing the object image to a spherical surface up to an angle of incidence close to 90 degrees. After analyzing the optical properties including spot diagrams in a plane vertical to the principal ray on the surface, the lens was found to be very effective in viewing an object over a very wide angle and is therefore thought to be especially suitable for many fields of application where image and information is transmitted over a very wide field at a time. Practically it is possible to apply this lens as a sensor of robot's eye with a total field angle of almost 180 degrees.

Key words : hyperboloid lens, very wide field view, robot's eyes