Snapshot spectropolarimetric imaging using a pair of filter array cameras

Spectral and polarization imaging (SPI) is an emerging sensing method that permits the analysis of both spectral and polarization information of a scene. The existing acquisition systems are limited by several factors, such as the space requirement, the inability to capture quickly the information, and the high cost. We propose an SPI acquisition system with a high spatial resolution that combines six spectral channels and four polarization channels. The optical setup employs two color-polarization filter array cameras and a pair of bandpass filters. We define the processing pipeline, consisting of preprocessing, geometric calibration, spectral calibration, and data transformation. We show that, around specular highlights, the spectral reconstruction can be improved by filtering the polarized intensity. We provide a database of 28 spectropolarimetric scenes with different materials for future simulation and analysis by the research community. (C) The Authors. Published by SPIE under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Automated summary

This paper presents a high spatial resolution spectral and polarization imaging system that can capture both spectral and polarization information. The system overcomes limitations of existing systems, and also provides a database of spectropolarimetric scenes for research purposes.