IMAGE CAPTURING DEVICE, IMAGE CAPTURING METHOD, AND METHOD FOR USING LIQUID CRYSTAL LENS

摘要

An image capturing device 1 includes a liquid crystal lens 2. The liquid crystal lens 2 has a pair of liquid crystal portions 8a each constituted of a single liquid crystal layer 8b. It is possible to apply voltages to the pair of liquid crystal portions 8a and 8a independently of each other. Polarized light Lp that can be refracted by one of the pair of liquid crystal portions 8a and 8a and polarized light Ls that can be refracted by the other have mutually orthogonal polarization directions. Furthermore, the image capturing device 1 includes: a polarized-light beam splitter 4 that mutually splits the polarized light Lp and polarized light Ls that have passed through the pair of liquid crystal portions 8a and 8a; and a pair of image capturing means 5 and 5 that capture individual images of the polarized light Lp and polarized light Ls split by the polarized-light beam splitter 4.