Abstract: AOTF (Acousto-optic Tunable Filter) is a new kind of electronically controlled optical filter. It has many advantages such as random wavelength access, fast spectral scanning speed, small size, no moving parts, good environmental adaptability, and so on. The working principles of AOTF and the method for spectral resolution programmability based on multi-frequencies mode were analyzed, the new hyperspectral imager based on AOTF was proposed, and the original experimental results were presented. The system works in the visible-near-infrared spectral range, and the outstanding feature is that both the wavelengths and the spectral resolution can be configured via software. So it has better flexibility and higher data efficiency compared to traditional hyperspectral imagers.