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In this article we present a new variant of the light field representation that supports improved image reconstruction by accommodating sparse correspondence information. This places our representation somewhere between a pure, two-plane parameterized, light field and a lumigraph representation, with its continuous geometric proxy. Our approach factors the rays of a light field into one of two separate classes. All rays consistent with a given correspondence are implicitly represented using a new auxiliary data structure, which we call a surface camera, or scam. The remaining rays of the light field are represented using a standard two-plane parameterized light field. We present an efficient rendering algorithm that combines ray samples from scams with those from the light field. The resulting image reconstructions are noticeably improved over that of a pure light field.

Light field microscopy (LFM), featured for high three-dimensional imaging speed and low phototoxicity, has emerged as a technique of choice for instantaneous volumetric imaging. In contrast with other scanning-based three-dimensional (3D) imaging approaches, LFM enables to encode 3D spatial information in a snapshot manner, permitting high-speed 3D imaging that is only limited by the frame rate of the camera. In this review, we first introduce the fundamental theory of LFM and current corresponding advanced approaches. Then, we summarize various applications of LFM in biological imaging.