System and Method for Image Enhancement and Improvement

• US 20130243334A1
• Filed: 03/15/2013
• Published: 09/19/2013
• Est. Priority Date: 09/28/2011
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: United States Of America As Represented By The Secretary Of The Army (Government of the United States of America)
• Original Assignee: US Army Research Laboratory (Government of the United States of America)
• Inventors: Meyers, Ronald E., Deacon, Keith S.
• Granted Patent: US 8,594,455 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 382/195
• CPC Class Codes: G06T 5/00 Image enhancement or restoration
• CPC Class Codes: G06V 10/30 Noise filtering

Abstract

A method and system for improving picture quality of images by providing a series of frames of a given region of interest. One embodiment for a method includes: determining the value of each pixel at each location within each frame to form a first array of pixel values for each frame; determining the overall intensity of each frame; determining the product of the overall intensity and the array of pixel values for each frame; determining the sum of the products by adding together the products of the overall frame intensity and first array of pixel values for each frame; determining the average of the sum of products by dividing the sum of products by the number of frames in the series of frames; determining the average value of each pixel at each pixel location for the series of frames to form a second array of average pixel values; determining the average overall frame intensity for the series of frames; determining a second product of the second array of average pixel values and the average overall frame intensity; subtracting the second product from the first product to provide an improved image of the region of interest. Other improvement embodiments are also disclosed.

Claims

1. A method for image improvement comprising

providing a series of frames of a given region of interest;

determining the value of each pixel within each frame to form a first array of pixel values;

determining the integral of pixel values of each frame to form a second array of overall frame integrals;

partitioning the first array into two sets based on a predetermined criteria;

partitioning the second array into two sets based on a predetermined criteria;

using the first and second sets of the first and second arrays to compute a conditional product term for each of the four combinations of the first and second sets of the first and second arrays; and

combining the conditional product terms to provide an improved image of the region of interest.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the frames inputted were influenced by the effects of turbulence, obscurants, or were taken during inclement or changing weather conditions.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined criteria for the first array are values above and below the average of the first array over all frames and where the predetermined criteria for the second array are values above and below the average of the second array over all frames of data.

4. The method of claim 3, wherein in the improved image is produced by adding the product of the above average values of the first array and the above average values of the second array to the product of the below average values of the first array and the below average values of the second array, subtracting the product of the above average values of the first array and the below average values of the second array, and subtracting the product of the below average values of the first array and the above average values of the second array.

5. The method of claim 3, wherein in the improved image is produced by adding the product of the above average values of the first array and the above average values of the second array to the product of the below average values of the first array and the below average values of the second array, adding the product of the above average values of the first array and the below average values of the second array, and adding the product of the below average values of the first array and the above average values of the second array.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein the predetermined criteria for the first array is the light polarization of the first array over all frames of data and where the predetermined criteria for the second array is the light polarization of the second array over all frames of data.

7. The method of claim 1, wherein the elements of the first and seconds sets of the first and second arrays are time or frame asynchronous.

8. The method of claim 1, wherein the resultant conditional product terms to include the final combined improved image is partition into positive elements and negative elements and further operated upon using functions including but not limited to logarithms, square roots, and exponents to further increase image contrast and image quality.

9. The method of claim 1, wherein the processes produces phase information of the target.

10. The method of claim 1, wherein the conditional product terms are computed using a compressive/sparse technique.

11. The method of claim 1, wherein the step of determining the overall intensity of each frame comprises adding together the values for the pixels.

12. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining the integral of pixel values of each frame comprises illuminating a target and determining the amount of light reflected from the target by detecting the reflected illumination using at least one image detector.

15. A system for image improvement comprising:

at least one processor, and

at least one memory operatively associated with the at least one processor for the storage of frames of data taken of a region of interest, each frame of data comprising an array of pixels, each frame having a frame integral correlating to the sum of the pixel values for each frame;

the at least one processor configured to execute the method of claim 1.

20. The method of claim 1 wherein the step of determining the integral of pixel values of each frame comprises determining the amount of light from the target by detecting the emanating illumination from the target using at least one detector;

the at least one detector comprises a camera, bucket detector, CMOS, SPAD, quantum well. LIDAR, LADAR or a charge coupled device.

13. A method for image improvement comprising:

providing a series of frames of a given region of interest;

determining the value of each pixel at each location within each frame to form a first array of pixel values for each frame;

determining the overall intensity of each frame;

determining the product of the overall intensity and the array of pixel values for each frame;

determining the sum of the products by adding together the products of the overall frame intensity and first array of pixel values for each frame;

determining the average of the sum of products by dividing the sum of products by the number of frames in the series of frames;

determining the average value of each pixel at each pixel location for the series of frames to form a second array of average pixel values;

determining the average overall frame intensity for the series of frames;

determining a second product of the second array of average pixel values and the average overall frame intensity;

subtracting the second product from the first product to provide an improved image of the region of interest;

partitioning the improved image into at least two partitions based on a predetermined criteria;

mathematically operating upon the partitioned improved image to increase image contrast or image clarity.

14. The method of claim 13, wherein the improved images of the region of interest is reconstructed using sparse data from a plurality of image frames.

16. A system for image improvement comprising:

at least one processor;

at least one memory operatively associated with the at least one processor, the at least one processor configured to execute the method of claim 13.

17. The system of claim 16, wherein the frames of data are input to the at least one processor, the frames of data comprising scanned images and wherein the frame intensity of each image is determined by illuminating the scanned image and determining the amount of light reflected from the image using at least one image sensor.

18. The system of claim 16, wherein the series of frames of a given region of interest comprises frames of data wherein the image of the region of interest has been distorted by the effects of turbulence or weather such that each frame contains one or more distorted features, the system operating to reduce or eliminate the distortion in the images to create an image having greater clarity.

19. The system of claim 18, wherein the distortion is reduced by using the overall intensity of the pixel values to utilize the effects of the quantum properties of light.