OPTIMUM LINEAR COMBINATION STRATEGY FOR AN N-CHANNEL POLARIZATION-SENSITIVE IMAGING OR VISION SYSTEM

The optimum linear combination channels for an N-receptor polarization -sensitive imaging or vision system are found by using a principal-com ponents analysis. The channels that are derived are optimum in the sen se that their information contents are uncorrelated when considered ov er the ensemble of possible polarization signals. For a two-receptor s ystem, the optimum channels are shown to be the sum and the difference of the outputs of the individual receptors. As a corollary, the optim al arrangement of the two receptors is shown to be a mosaic of identic al, orthogonally aligned linear polarization analyzers. The implicatio ns of these results on the development of a representational scheme fo r polarization information are discussed. (C) 1998 Optical Society of America.