Realisation of an Application Specific Multispectral Snapshot-Imaging System Based on Multi-Aperture-Technology and Multispectral Machine Learning Loops

Abstract

Multispectral imaging (MSI) enables the acquisition of spatial and spectral image-based information in one process. Spectral scene information can be used to determine the characteristics of materials based on reflection or absorption and thus their material compositions. This work focuses on so-called multi aperture imaging, which enables a simultaneous capture (snapshot) of spectrally selective and spatially resolved scene information. There are some limiting factors for the spectral resolution when implementing this imaging principle, e.g., usable sensor resolutions and area, and required spatial scene resolution or optical complexity. Careful analysis is therefore needed for the specification of the multispectral system properties and its realisation. In this work we present a systematic approach for the application-related implementation of this kind of MSI. We focus on spectral system modeling, data analysis, and machine learning to build a universally usable multispectral loop to find the best sensor configuration. The approach presented is demonstrated and tested on the classification of waste, a typical application for multispectral imaging.