Open AccessAdaptive polarization-difference transient imaging for depth estimation in scattering media
Author(s) -
Rihui Wu,
Adrián Jarabo,
Jinli Suo,
Feng Dai,
Yongdong Zhang,
Qionghai Dai,
Diego Gutiérrez
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
optics letters/optics index
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.524
H-Index - 272
eISSN - 1071-2763
pISSN - 0146-9592
DOI - 10.1364/ol.43.001299
Subject(s) - optics , polarization (electrochemistry) , scattering , impulse (physics) , physics , transient (computer programming) , computer science , chemistry , quantum mechanics , operating system
Introducing polarization into transient imaging improves depth estimation in participating media, by discriminating reflective from scattered light transport and calculating depth from the former component only. Previous works have leveraged this approach under the assumption of uniform polarization properties. However, the orientation and intensity of polarization inside scattering media is nonuniform, both in the spatial and temporal domains. As a result of this simplifying assumption, the accuracy of the estimated depth worsens significantly as the optical thickness of the medium increases. In this Letter, we introduce a novel adaptive polarization-difference method for transient imaging, taking into account the nonuniform nature of polarization in scattering media. Our results demonstrate a superior performance for impulse-based transient imaging over previous unpolarized or uniform approaches.