Optical Superresolution

ARCON scientists, under contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory, are developing the capability to perform optical superresolution (SR) using multiple images, with particular application to the imaging, either from space or the earth, of orbiting objects.

Our research activity in SR is grounded in part on methods and software that have been developed by various researchers for SR in applications as diverse as medical imaging, security applications, and astronomical imaging. Many of the techniques involve either spatial or Fourier transform domain formulations that incorporate the characteristics of the optics and the sensor(s). Our current focus is on a particular spatial domain formulation that lends itself relatively easily to space-variant point spread functions of the optical system. We are investigating the possibility of incorporating into our programs different sensor array models that have unique properties of their own. We are developing programs to perform de-aliasing of registered images corrupted by noise, which requires us to perform sub-pixel image registration followed by high resolution image reconstruction that incorporates de-aliasing. Registration of images from objects undergoing rigid body displacements and rotations are under consideration.