Plenary Paper Why optics students should take digital signal processing courses and why digital signal processing students should take optics courses

This paper is based on the claim that future major contributions in the field of imaging systems will be made by those who have a background in both optics and digital signal processing. As the introduction of Fourier transforms and linear systems theory to optics had a major impact on the design of hybrid optical/digital imaging systems, the introduction of digital signal processing into optics programs will have a major impact. Examples are given of new hybrid imaging systems that have unique performance. By jointly designing the optics and the signal processing in a digital camera, a new paradigm arises where aberration balancing takes into consideration not only the number of surfaces and indices of refraction, but also the processing capability