Reflection interference removal for infrared thermography images based on GAN

Abstract

Reflection in images is common and the removal of complex noise such as image reflection is still being explored. The problem is difficult and ill-posed, not only because there is no mixing function but also because there are no constraints in the output space (the processed image). When it comes to detecting defects on metal surfaces using infrared thermography, reflection from smooth metal surfaces can easily affect the final detection results. Therefore, it is essential to remove the reflection interference in infrared images. With the continuous application and expansion of neural networks in the field of image processing, researchers have tried to apply neural networks to remove image reflection. However, they have mainly focused on reflection interference removal in visible images and it is believed that no researchers have applied neural networks to remove reflection interference in infrared images. In this paper, the authors introduce the concept of a conditional generative adversarial network (cGAN) and propose an end-to-end trained network based on this with two types of loss: perceptual loss and adversarial loss. A self-built infrared reflection image dataset from an infrared camera is used. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of this GAN for removing infrared image reflection.