Combined calibration and nonuniformity correction of a sensor for improved projector nonuniformity correction

Breck A. Sieglinger; David S. Flynn; R. Bryan Sisko; George C. Goldsmith II; Rhoe A. Thompson; William M. Meshell; James D. Norman

doi:10.1117/12.543063

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4 August 2004 Combined calibration and nonuniformity correction of a sensor for improved projector nonuniformity correction

Breck A. Sieglinger, David S. Flynn, R. Bryan Sisko, George C. Goldsmith II, Rhoe A. Thompson, William M. Meshell, James D. Norman

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Proceedings Volume 5408, Technologies for Synthetic Environments: Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing IX; (2004) https://doi.org/10.1117/12.543063
Event: Defense and Security, 2004, Orlando, Florida, United States

Abstract

One proven technique for nonuniformity correction (NUC) of a resistor array infrared scene projector requires careful measurement of the output-versus-input response for every emitter in a large array. In previous papers, we have discussed methods and results for accomplishing the projector NUC. Two difficulties that may limit the NUC results are residual nonuniformity in the calibration sensor, and nonlinearity in the calibration sensor's response to scene radiance. These effects introduce errors in the measurement of the projector elements' output, which lead to residual nonuniformity. In this paper we describe a recent effort to mitigate both of these problems using a procedure that combines sensor nonuniformity correction and sensor calibration, detector by detector, so that these problems do not contaminate the projector NUC. By measuring a set of blackbody flood-field images at a dozen or so different temperatures, the individual detector output-versus-input radiance responses can be measured. Similar to the projector NUC, we use a curve-fitting routine to model the response of each detector. Using this set of response curves, a post-processing algorithm is used to correct and calibrate the images measured by the sensor. We have used this approach to reduce several sensor error sources by a factor of 10 to 100. The resulting processing is used to correct and calibrate all of the sensor images used to perform the projector NUC, as one step in the projector NUC. The procedure appears to be useful for any application where sensor nonuniformity or response nonlinearities are significant.

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Breck A. Sieglinger, David S. Flynn, R. Bryan Sisko, George C. Goldsmith II, Rhoe A. Thompson, William M. Meshell, and James D. Norman "Combined calibration and nonuniformity correction of a sensor for improved projector nonuniformity correction", Proc. SPIE 5408, Technologies for Synthetic Environments: Hardware-in-the-Loop Testing IX, (4 August 2004); https://doi.org/10.1117/12.543063

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