Feature-enhanced fiber bundle imaging based on light field acquisition

Abstract

Optical fiber bundles frequently serve as crucial components in flexible miniature endoscopes, transmitting end-to-end images directly for medical and industrial applications. Each core usually acts as a single pixel, and the resolution of the image is limited by the core size and core spacing. We propose a method that exploits the hidden information embedded in the pattern within each core to break the limitation and obtain high-dimensional light field information and more features of the original image including edges, texture, and color. Intra-core patterns are mainly related to the spatial angle of captured light rays and the shape of the core. A convolutional neural network is used to accelerate the extraction of in-core features containing the light field information of the whole scene, achieve the transformation of in-core features to real details, and enhance invisible texture features and image colorization of fiber bundle images.