UNB Pan-sharp, also named FuzeGo, is an image fusion technique to produce high resolution color satellite images by
fusing a high resolution panchromatic (monochrome) image and a low resolution multispectral (color) image. This is an
effective solution that modern satellites have been using to capture high resolution color images at an ultra-high speed.
Initial research on security camera systems shows that the UNB Pan-sharp technique can also be utilized to produce high
resolution and high sensitive color video images for various imaging and monitoring applications. Based on UNB Pansharp
technique, a video camera prototype system, called the UNB Super-camera system, was developed that captures
high resolution panchromatic images and low resolution color images simultaneously, and produces real-time high
resolution color video images on the fly. In a separate study, it was proved that UNB Super Camera outperforms
conventional 1-chip and 3-chip color cameras in image quality, especially when the illumination is low such as in room
lighting. In this research the influence of image compression on the quality of UNB Pan-sharped high resolution color
images is evaluated, since image compression is widely used in still and video cameras to reduce data volume and speed
up data transfer. The results demonstrate that UNB Pan-sharp can consistently produce high resolution color images that
have the same detail as the input high resolution panchromatic image and the same color of the input low resolution color
image, regardless the compression ratio and lighting condition. In addition, the high resolution color images produced by
UNB Pan-sharp have higher sensitivity (signal to noise ratio) and better edge sharpness and color rendering than those of
the same generation 1-chip color camera, regardless the compression ratio and lighting condition.
A 2-chip color camera, named UNB Super-camera, is introduced in this paper. Its image qualities in different lighting
conditions are compared with those of a 1-chip color camera and a 3-chip color camera. The 2-chip color camera
contains a high resolution monochrome (panchromatic) sensor and a low resolution color sensor. The high resolution
color images of the 2-chip color camera are produced through an image fusion technique: UNB pan-sharp, also named
FuzeGo. This fusion technique has been widely used to produce high resolution color satellite images from a high
resolution panchromatic image and low resolution multispectral (color) image for a decade. Now, the fusion technique is
further extended to produce high resolution color still images and video images from a 2-chip color camera. The initial
quality assessments of a research project proved that the light sensitivity, image resolution and color quality of the
Super-camera (2-chip camera) is obviously better than those of the same generation 1-chip camera. It is also proven that
the image quality of the Super-camera is much better than the same generation 3-chip camera when the light is low, such
as in a normal room light condition or darker. However, the resolution of the Super-camera is the same as that of the 3-
chip camera, these evaluation results suggest the potential of using 2-chip camera to replace 3-chip camera for capturing
high quality color images, which is not only able to lower the cost of camera manufacture but also significantly
improving the light sensitivity.
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