Although gray-level fused images can optimally integrate the modalities of low-light CCD and infrared imager, operators cannot tell from which modality the details originate. Thus the fundamental that human eyes can discern much more color categories than gray levels has been used to assigns a distinct color to each sensor modality. But the color fused image which has no natural appearance will fatigue operators greatly. Our approach is building on MIT scheme and aims at achieving natural appearance in the color fused image. MIT scheme derives its basis from biological models of color vision and utilizes the feed-forward center-surround shunting neural network to enhance and fuse low-light and infrared images. We bring forward linear fusion architecture, and composite architecture that comprises the enhancement part of MIT scheme and the linear fusion architecture. Furthermore, enhancement and combination methods for low-light and infrared images of different properties have been specified.

Date Published: 30 August 2002
PDF: 8 pages
Proc. SPIE 4925, Electronic Imaging and Multimedia Technology III, (30 August 2002); doi: 10.1117/12.481629

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 4925:
Electronic Imaging and Multimedia Technology III
LiWei Zhou; Chung-Sheng Li; Yoshiji Suzuki, Editor(s)