COLORIMETRIC REPRESENTATIONS FOR USE WITH POLARIZATION-DIFFERENCE IMAGING OF OBJECTS IN SCATTERING MEDIA

Polarization-difference imaging (PDI) has been shown to yield an impro vement in the qualitative and quantitative detectability of objects in scattering media. In this investigation, PDI and conventional, polari zation-blind imaging are combined to yield a novel representational sc heme generally suitable for detection of targets having a low degree o f linear polarization and specifically suitable for detection and disc rimination of weakly polarizing targets in scattering media. This repr esentational scheme meets several general criteria for optimization of the presentation of low-signal image information to human observers a nd takes specific advantage of the properties of the opponent-color co ding used by the human visual system. (C) 1998 Optical Society of Amer ica.