Proceedings Article | 11 May 2009
Proc. SPIE. 7336, Signal Processing, Sensor Fusion, and Target Recognition XVIII
KEYWORDS: Infrared sensors, Infrared imaging, Mid-IR, Visible radiation, Optical spheres, Polarization, Sensors, Polarimetry, Infrared radiation, Aluminum
Spectral sensors are commonly used to measure the intensity of optical radiation and to provide spectral information
about the distribution of material components in a given scene, over a limited number of wave bands. By exploiting the
polarization of light to measure information about the vector nature of the optical field across a scene, collected
polarimetric images have the potential to provide additional information about the shape, shading, roughness, and
surface features of targets of interest. The overall performance of target detection algorithms could thus be increased by
exploiting these polarimetric signatures to discriminate man-made objects against different natural backgrounds. This is
achieved through the use of performance metrics, derived from the computed Stokes parameters, defining the degree of
polarization of man-made objects. This paper describes performance metrics that have been developed to optimize the
image acquisition of selected polarization angle and degree of linear polarization, by using the Poincare sphere and
Stokes vectors from previously acquired images, and then by extracting some specific features from the polarimetric
images. Polarimetric signatures of man-made objects have been acquired using a passive polarimetric imaging sensor
developed at DRDC Valcartier. The sensor operates concomitantly (bore-sighted images, aligned polarizations) in the
visible, shortwave infrared, midwave infrared, and the long-wave infrared bands. Results demonstrate the improvement
of using these performance metrics to characterize the degree of polarization of man-made objects using passive
polarimetric images.
