• Korean Journal of Optics and Photonics
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.88-97
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• 2015

An omnidirectional optical system can be described as a special optical system that images in real time a panoramic image with an azimuthal angle of $360^{\circ}$ and the altitude angle corresponding to the upper and lower fields of view from the horizon line. In this paper, for easy fabrication and compact size, we designed and fabricated a catadioptric omnidirectional optical system consisting of the mirror part of a spherical mirror with a central hole (that is, obscuration), a plane mirror, the imaging lens part of 3 single spherical lenses, and a spherical doublet in the visible light spectrum. We evaluated its image performance by measuring the cut-off spatial frequency using automobile license plates, and the vertical field of view using an ISO 12233 chart. We achieved a catadioptric omnidirectional optical system with vertical field of view from $+53^{\circ}$ to $-17^{\circ}$ and an azimuthal angle of $360^{\circ}$. This optical system cleaniy imaged letters on a car's front license plate at the object distance of 3 meters, which corresponds to a cut-off spatial frequency of 135 lp/mm.