Three Dimensional Visualization of Long Range Scenes by Photon Counting Mid-Wave Infrared Integral Imaging

Abstract

Integral Imaging under photon counting conditions has found different three-dimensional (3D) imaging applications, including 3D image reconstruction and recognition. In this letter, we present the application of the maximum likelihood (ML) estimation method for visualization of 3D scenes in photon starved environments using Mid-Wave Infrared 3D data of real scenes acquired at distances ranging from 50m to more than 2km. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on Mid-Wave Infrared 3D photon counting integral imaging of distant scenes.