Blur-free low-light imaging with color and event cameras

Abstract

Imaging under low-light conditions is a challenging but important problem due to low dynamic range, image noise, and blurriness. In this work, we propose blur-free low-light imaging techniques by combining a conventional color camera with an event camera. The event camera complements the color camera by measuring brightness changes asynchronously at high speed with high dynamic range. We synchronize the two sensors with external trigger cable. We align the viewpoints of the event and color using a beamsplitter. We co-calibrate the two cameras geometrically. We derive an image formation model and use the inverted model to reduce the blurriness in color images. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our method.