Bio-Inspired Multimodal Imaging in Reduced Visibility

Pierre-Jean Lapray,Ivar Farup,Jean-Baptiste Thomas

doi:10.3389/fcomp.2021.737144

Abstract

The visual systems found in nature rely on capturing light under different modalities, in terms of spectral sensitivities and polarization sensitivities. Numerous imaging techniques are inspired by this variety, among which, the most famous is color imaging inspired by the trichromacy theory of the human visual system. We investigate the spectral and polarimetric properties of biological imaging systems that will lead to the best performance on scene imaging through haze, i.e., dehazing. We design a benchmark experiment based on modalities inspired by several visual systems, and adapt state-of-the-art image reconstruction algorithms to those modalities. We show the difference in performance of each studied systems and discuss it in front of our methodology and the statistical relevance of our data.

Highlights

A wide variety of visual systems can be found in nature
Light scattering causes a modification of the signal according to the radiative transfer theory, that in imaging causes a decrease in contrast with distance and a loss of color fidelity (El Khoury et al, 2014; El Khoury et al, 2018a)
We investigate 1) whether the extra information modalities sensed by various animals could potentially help them in hazy/reduced-visibility conditions and more generally in some turbid media, and 2) if so, whether we could improve state-of-the-art image information recovery by designing imaging systems for computer vision applications

Summary

Introduction

A wide variety of visual systems can be found in nature Those systems sense light with different spectral sensitivities and polarization sensitivities. Those visual systems are optimally adapted for specific conditions, e.g., some animals develop specific sensitivities to permit navigation or prey detection (Horváth et al, 2014). Airlight can reduce the visibility in a natural environment It comes when the atmospheric particles, e.g., water droplets, ice crystals, dust, or smoke, are lit directly or indirectly by the Sun. Light scattering causes a modification of the signal according to the radiative transfer theory, that in imaging causes a decrease in contrast with distance and a loss of color fidelity (El Khoury et al, 2014; El Khoury et al, 2018a)

Results

Discussion

Conclusion