Critical to navigation, situational awareness, and object identification is the ability to image through turbid water and fog. To date, the longest imaging ranges in such environments rely on active illumination and selection of ballistic photons by means of time gating. Here we show that the imaging range can be extended by using time-gated holography in combination with multi-frame processing. Instead of simply summing the intensity of the frames, we use the complex fields retrieved through digital holographic processing and coherently add the frames. We demonstrate imaging through extended bodies of turbid water and fog at one-way attenuation lengths of 13 and 13.6, respectively. Compared to equivalent traditional time-gated systems, gated holography and coherent processing require 20× less laser illumination power for the same imaging range.

The emerging class of multi-spectral mosaic-array cameras combines opportunities of spectral data processing and full-motion video color display. We explore capabilities of such sensors and propose the novel demosaicking algorithm capable of enhancing resolution of equally sampled multi-spectral mosaic imagery. We present experimental results of the proposed processing using the imagery acquired with a nine-band short-wave infrared mosaic-array camera.

Short-wave infrared (SWIR) imaging sensors are increasingly being used in surveillance and reconnaissance systems due to the reduced scatter in haze and the spectral response of materials over this wavelength range. Typically SWIR images have been provided either as full motion video from framing panchromatic systems or as spectral data cubes from line-scanning hyperspectral or multispectral systems. Here, we describe and characterize a system that bridges this divide, providing nine-band spectral images at 30 Hz. The system integrates a custom array of filters onto a commercial SWIR InGaAs array. We measure the filter placement and spectral response. We demonstrate a simple simulation technique to facilitate optimization of band selection for future sensors.

In a prior paper, we described a new imaging architecture that addresses the need for wide field-of-view imaging combined with the resolution required to identify targets at long range. Over the last two years substantive improvements have been made to the system, both in terms of the size, weight, and power of the camera as well as to the optics and data management software. The result is an overall improvement in system performance, which we demonstrate via a maritime target identification experiment.

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