When is polarimetric imaging preferable to intensity imaging for target detection ?

François Goudail (1) , J. Scott Tyo (2)

1 Laboratoire Charles Fabry de l'Institut d'Optique / Scop
2 University of Arizona

We consider target detection in images perturbed with additive noise. We determine the conditions in which polarimetric imaging, which consists of analyzing of the polarization of the light scattered by the scene before forming the image, yields better performance than classical intensity imaging. These results give important information to assess the interest of polarimetric imaging in a given application.

Domains: Physics [physics]; Physics [physics]; Optics [physics.optics]

François Goudail, J. Scott Tyo. When is polarimetric imaging preferable to intensity imaging for target detection ?. Journal of the Optical Society of America. A Optics, Image Science, and Vision, 2011, 28 (1), pp.46-53. ⟨hal-00747110⟩