A review of image fusion: Methods, applications and performance metrics

Abstract

The same sensor or a number of image sensors are used to take a series of photographs in order to gather as much data as possible about the scene. Several imaging techniques are used to retrieve entire information from the source under observation. Image fusion (IF) is used to create a new image that incorporates comprehensive information from many photographs. The various images may be captured from different viewpoints, different imaging sensors i.e., visible (VIS) and IR camera, different modalities i.e., computed tomography (CT) and magnetic resonance image (MRI), hyper spectral images i.e., panchromatic and multi-spectral satellite images, multi-exposure images and multi-focus images. Owing to the growing mandates and development of image enhancement schemes, numerous fusion methods were recently formulated. Consequentially, we are doing a survey study to document the methodological development in IF techniques. The outline of picture merging technologies is described in this article. Ultimately, latest state-of-the-art fusion techniques are also demonstrated. Readers will gain insights on current discoveries and their implications for the future through a review of diverse image fusion in various areas and fusion quality metrics.