A real-time atmospheric turbulence mitigation and super-resolution solution for infrared imaging systems

Douglas R. Droege; Russell C. Hardie; Brian S. Allen; Alexander J. Dapore; Jon C. Blevins

doi:10.1117/12.920323

18 May 2012 A real-time atmospheric turbulence mitigation and super-resolution solution for infrared imaging systems

Douglas R. Droege, Russell C. Hardie, Brian S. Allen, Alexander J. Dapore, Jon C. Blevins

Proceedings Volume 8355, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XXIII; 83550R (2012) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.920323
Event: SPIE Defense, Security, and Sensing, 2012, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

Abstract

Imagery acquired with modern imaging systems is susceptible to a variety of degradations, including blur from the point spread function (PSF) of the imaging system, aliasing from undersampling, blur and warping from atmospheric turbulence, and noise. A variety of image restoration methods have been proposed that estimate an improved image by processing a sequence of these degraded images. In particular, multi-frame image restoration has proven to be a particularly powerful tool for atmospheric turbulence mitigation (TM) and super-resolution (SR). However, these degradations are rarely addressed simultaneously using a common algorithm architecture, and few TM or SR solutions are capable of performing robustly in the presence of true scene motion, such as moving dismounts. Still fewer TM or SR algorithms have found their way into practical real-time implementations. In this paper, we describe a new L-3 joint TM and SR (TMSR) real-time processing solution and demonstrate its capabilities. The system employs a recently developed versatile multi-frame joint TMSR algorithm that has been implemented using a real-time, low-power FPGA processor system. The L-3 TMSR solution can accommodate a wide spectrum of atmospheric conditions and can robustly handle moving vehicles and dismounts. This novel approach unites previous work in TM and SR and also incorporates robust moving object detection. To demonstrate the capabilities of the TMSR solution, results using field test data captured under a variety of turbulence levels, optical configurations, and applications are presented. The performance of the hardware implementation is presented, and we identify specific insertion paths into tactical sensor systems.

Citation Download Citation

Douglas R. Droege, Russell C. Hardie, Brian S. Allen, Alexander J. Dapore, and Jon C. Blevins "A real-time atmospheric turbulence mitigation and super-resolution solution for infrared imaging systems", Proc. SPIE 8355, Infrared Imaging Systems: Design, Analysis, Modeling, and Testing XXIII, 83550R (18 May 2012); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.920323

ACCESS THE FULL ARTICLE

INSTITUTIONAL
Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.

SELECT YOUR INSTITUTION

PERSONAL
Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.

PERSONAL SIGN IN

No SPIE Account? Create one

PURCHASE THIS CONTENT

SUBSCRIBE TO DIGITAL LIBRARY

50 downloads per 1-year subscription

Members: $195

Non-members: $335 ADD TO CART

25 downloads per 1 - year subscription

Members: $145

Non-members: $250 ADD TO CART

PURCHASE SINGLE ARTICLE

Includes PDF, HTML & Video, when available