Optimization of the contrast in polarimetric scalar images

Abstract

We consider active polarimetric imaging systems that illuminate a scene with an incident polarization state and project the backscattered light on another polarization state in order to produce a scalar intensity image. We present and analyze a method for determining the configuration of illumination and analysis polarization states that maximizes the observed contrast between a target and the background when the scene is partially depolarizing and in the presence of additive Gaussian detection noise.

Fully tunable active polarization imager for contrast enhancement and partial polarimetry

“…In the radar domain, polarization has been used for a long time to enhance the contrast in synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images [26]. More recently, polarization has also been proven useful for enhancing the contrast in optical imaging [22,27,28]. However, standard polarimetric imaging systems may not be able to reach the highest possible value of the contrast for two main reasons.…”

Comparative study of the best achievable contrast in scalar, Stokes and Mueller images

“…In practice, one will determine the vector S G that maximizes it, and the maximal achievable contrast is [9] :…”

Joint contrast optimization and object segmentation in active polarimetric images

“…Let us consider an active polarimetric imaging system that illuminates the scene with light whose polarization state is defined by a Stokes vector S and is produced by a polarization state generator (PSG) [7]. The polarimetric properties of a region of the scene corresponding to a pixel in the image is characterized by its Mueller matrix M. The Stokes vector of the light scattered by this region is S 0 MS.…”

“…To solve these issues, we propose an iterative method based on the acquisition of single images with optimized contrast [7]. It is illustrated in Fig.…”