Optical Anamorphs

An optical anamorhphic image is one that has been pre-distorted to correct the optical distortion caused by some optical device. Each student in the Advanced Optics course created a drawing or used the computer to create an image having the “inverse distortion” (anamorph) caused by a cylindrical mirror. Anamorphic images were made by translating Cartesian coordinates to polar coordinates. Some examples are shown below showing how the image actually displayed after reflection from a cylindrical mirror.