Influence of Solid Target Reflectivity and Incident Angle on Depolarization Ratio and Reflected Energy from Polarized Lights: Experimental Results of the May 2008 Field Trial.

摘要

Spectral sensors are commonly used to measure the intensity of optical radiation and to provide spectral information about the distribution of material components in a given scene, over a limited number of wave bands. By exploiting the polarization of light to measure information about the vector nature of the optical field across a scene, collected polarimetric images have the potential to provide additional information about the shape, shading, roughness, and surface features of targets of interest. The overall performance of target detection algorithms could thus be increased by exploiting these polarimetric signatures to discriminate man-made objects against different backgrounds. In order to understand how the polarisation of light might help in the discrimination of solid targets from their background, a field trial was conducted at DRDC Valcartier between 14-16 May 2008. The approach consisted in evaluating the depolarization ratio of different solid targets using active polarization signatures at 532 nm. This technical report presents the set-up, the methodology and the type of targets measured during the trial. The targets used were segmented into eight groups: insulation, wood, metallic, environment, sand paper-type, industrial plastic-type, bottles and sand targets. Experimental results on the influence of solid target reflectivity and incident angle on depolarization ratio and reflected energy from polarized lights is also provided.