Major investments are pouring into a wide variety of optical materials and lens technologies such as metamaterials, free-form surfaces, printed or molded optical glass and plastics, gradient index materials and manufacturing curved image sensors. These all seek to achieve the same objective – make optical systems (and usually imaging systems) perform better, cost less or become smaller. But which technology stands to provide the best improvement or the best bang for your research buck? We developed the VIE metric in an attempt to answer that question from a technology-agnostic perspective. The VIE is a measure of the resolution density of an imaging optic compared against the most dense system possible based on fundamental limits of diffraction. 

We collected >2800 lens designs and showed an empirical limit to the VIE of conventional imaging systems – using bulk optics imaging onto flat sensors. The limiting VIE decreases exponentially with FOV. We show examples of bulk lenses imaging onto curved sensors and metasurface lenses that surpass conventional systems by ~100x. These technologies particularly excel in wide angle applications where conventional lenses grow to become very bulky.