1. A method for performing synthetic aperture optics (SAO) on a target including one or more objects, the method comprising the steps of: illuminating the target with a predetermined number (N) of selective excitation patterns, the number (N) of selective excitation patterns being determined based upon the objects' physical characteristics corresponding to spatial frequency content from the illuminated target; optically imaging the illuminated target at a resolution insufficient to resolve the objects; and processing optical images of the illuminated target using information on the selective excitation patterns to obtain a final image of the illuminated target at a resolution sufficient to resolve the objects.