Articles | Volume 7, issue 1
https://doi.org/10.5194/jsss-7-13-2018
Special issue:
https://doi.org/10.5194/jsss-7-13-2018
Regular research article
 | 
11 Jan 2018
Regular research article |  | 11 Jan 2018

Temperature reconstruction of infrared images with motion deblurring

Beate Oswald-Tranta

Abstract. Infrared images of an uncooled microbolometer camera can show significant blurring effects while recording a moving object. The electrical signal in the pixel of a microbolometer detector decays exponentially; hence, the moving object is mapped to more pixels resulting in a blurred image. Not only the contrast is corrupted by the motion, but also the temperature of the object seems to be significantly lower. In this paper, it is shown how such images can be deblurred and the true temperature with a good approximation restored. Since the detection mechanism of a microbolometer camera is different from complementary metal–oxide–semiconductor (CMOS) or charge-coupled device (CCD) cameras, also the point-spread function (PSF) needed for the deblurring restoration is different. It is shown how the exponential coefficient of the PSF can be calculated if the motion speed and the camera resolution are known, or otherwise how it can be estimated from the image itself. Experimental examples are presented for motion deblurring used to restore images with linear or rotational motion.

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Short summary
Images of an infrared camera show blurring effects while recording a moving object. Not only the contrast is corrupted by the motion but also the object temperature seems to be lower. It is shown how such images and the true temperature with a good approximation can be restored. Since the detection mechanism of an infrared camera is different from usual digital cameras, also the restoration is different. Examples are presented for motion deblurring used to restore images with different motions.
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