HIGH-DYNAMIC-RANGE IMAGE ACQUISITION AND DISPLAY BY MULTI-INTENSITY IMAGERY

This study describes a method for generating an image of a scene with a wide dynamic range, using a linear detector of narrower dynamic rang e for display on a device also having a narrow dynamic range. The tech nique effectively gathers multiple copies of the image with a multipli cative gain factor to ''push'' the data into the linear range of the d etector or display. The gray level degeneracy due to the effect of cut off/oversaturation is removed by dynamic range enhancement/reduction. A high-dynamic-range image is recorded on a sequence of multiple inten sity frames from which any information about the original image can be found. One simple way to manipulate the data in the multi-intensity i magery is the data block operation of ''cut and paste,'' with which on e can build a merged image interactively that is suitable for display on a monitor of narrow dynamic range. The mathematical representation and signal-to-noise ratio involved are presented and a demonstration b y recording and displaying an optical power spectrum of joint transfor m correlation is also described.