Bioinspired compound imager for foveated light-field imaging

Biological vision systems have evolved a wide range of optical architectures that balance spatial resolution, field of view, and depth perception according to ecological demands. Arthropod compound eyes provide panoramic angular coverage and rapid motion sensitivity through densely packed ommatidia, while vertebrate chambered eyes achieve high spatial acuity through a concave retinal geometry and foveated sampling. Despite their complementary advantages, artificial imaging systems inspired by these architectures typically inherit the same trade-offs that limit their biological counterparts. Here, we present a foveated light-field compound imager (FOLIC) that integrates key features of compound and chambered eyes within a compact concave multi-aperture architecture. FOLIC employs a tilted microlens array arranged on a concave surface to increase inter-aperture overlap and angular sampling, enabling single-snapshot light-field acquisition. Each microlens incorporates a logarithmic axicon surface, providing an extended depth of focus that allows all elemental images to remain sharply focused on a planar image sensor. From a single capture, FOLIC reconstruction naturally separates the imaging field into peripheral, blend, and foveated zones, supporting wide-field contextual imaging, intermediate depth perception, and high-resolution three-dimensional visualization, respectively. We validate the system using live cells embedded in millimeter-thick hydrogels and nonfluorescent biological specimens under brightfield illumination. These results demonstrate that FOLIC provides multiscale volumetric imaging within a compact platform scalable for biomedical research and translational applications. We anticipate FOLIC to provide a blueprint, stemming from biological optical structures, for the design of future artificial vision systems.