Efficient Ray Tracing Through Aspheric Lenses and Imperfect Bokeh Synthesis

Abstract

We present an efficient ray-tracing technique to render bokeh effects produced by parametric aspheric lenses. Contrary to conventional spherical lenses, aspheric lenses do generally not permit a simple closed-form solution of ray-surface intersections. We propose a numerical root-finding approach, which uses tight proxy surfaces to ensure a good initialization and convergence behavior. Additionally, we simulate mechanical imperfections resulting from the lens fabrication via a texture-based approach. Fractional Fourier transform and spectral dispersion add additional realism to the synthesized bokeh effect. Our approach is well-suited for execution on graphics processing units (GPUs) and we demonstrate complex defocus-blur and lens-flare effects.