Applications of High Precision Imaging Polarimetry

Abstract

We propose the use of imaging polarimetry for general photography, which is a relatively young technique allowing the determination of polarized components of the light coming from extended objects or scenes. In this paper high resolution and accurate methods are introduced to determine the two linearly polarized components (Q;U) of light. The CIE Luv color space is used in this work to visualize the triplet of (I;Q;U) polarization image components. The structure of this color space is also highly appropriate to represent other attributes of linearly polarized light, such as the polarized intensity, degree and the angle of polarization. The accurately measured polarization components can also be efficiently used for image enhancement. In this direction, a new, polarization-based de-reflection method is proposed. This method is an optimal pixel-wise extension of the widely used photographical polarization filtering. Our method is also capable of amplifying the specular effects. Another application is de-hazing, which removes the linearly polarized component of the haze present in natural scenes, and results in a sharp and color-corrected image. Furthermore, the different combinations of visible and infrared polarization channels enable great possibilities in further de-hazing and to create artistic images.