A Super-Resolution Reconstruction Method for Infrared Polarization Images with Sparse Representation of Over-Complete Basis Sets

Abstract

The spatial resolution of an infrared focal plane polarization detection system is limited by the structure of the detector, resulting in lower resolution than the actual array size. To overcome this limitation and improve imaging resolution, we propose an infrared polarization super-resolution reconstruction model based on sparse representation, optimized using Stokes vector images. This model forms the basis for our method aimed at achieving super-resolution reconstruction of infrared polarization images. In this method, we utilize the proposed model to initially reconstruct low-resolution images in blocks. Subsequently, we perform a division by weight, followed by iterative back projection to enhance details and achieve high-resolution reconstruction results. As a supplement, we establish a near-real-time short-wave infrared time-sharing polarization system for data collection. The dataset was acquired to gather prior knowledge of the over-complete basis set and to generate a series of simulated focal plane images. Simulation experimental results demonstrate the superiority of our method over several advanced methods in objective evaluation indexes, exhibiting strong noise robustness in quantitative experiments. Finally, to validate the practical application of our method, we establish a split-focal plane polarization short-wave infrared system for scene testing. Experimental results confirm the effective processing of actual captured data by our method.