Experimental analysis of polarization characteristics of surface targets based on active illumination

Abstract

Light source condition is an important factor affecting image quality in active illumination polarization imaging system. It is of practical significance to study the variation trend of polarization degree contrast between target and water surface background under different light source conditions for water surface target recognition and classification using active illumination polarization imaging technology. In this paper, polarization imaging experiments of iron, aluminum, wood and foam are carried out under water background, and the variation trend of polarization contrast between target and water background is studied under different incident zenith Angle, different polarization states and different light source of visible light band. The results show that the polarization contrast between targets of different materials and water surface background has different sensitive range to the change of incident zenith Angle, and the appropriate incident zenith Angle can be selected according to the actual demand in water surface target recognition and classification. The smooth surface material is more sensitive to the change of incident light band than the rough surface material, and the depolarization ability of the rough surface target to the single-band polarized light is weaker than that of the all-band visible polarized light, which is more conducive to the observation of the surface characteristics of the rough target. Compared with 0° and 90° linearly polarized light, linearly polarized light with incident light of ±45° has a greater polarization contrast and is more conducive to target recognition under water background.