IMAGE-QUALITY ENHANCEMENT OF OBJECTS IN TURBID MEDIA BY USE OF A COMBINED COMPUTATIONAL-PHOTONICS APPROACH

Ultrafast time-gated optical imaging and computational image-enhanceme nt techniques were combined to produce a robust system for viewing obj ects in turbid media. Image enhancement was implemented by use of imag es from the early Light with a histogram contrast-enhancement algorith m. Image quality was assessed by use of the contrast radius of gyratio n and the contrast-to-noise ratio. The technique was applied to viewin g the dispersion of water droplets emanating from a jet spray and to p ictures of an object embedded in turbid media. In all instances there were substantial improvements in image quality at a. given time delay. (C) 1997 Optical Society of America.