Abstract

Results are presented that demonstrate the effectiveness of using polarization discrimination to improve visibility when imaging in a scattering medium. The study is motivated by the desire to improve visibility depth in turbid environments, such as the sea. Most previous research in this area has concentrated on the active illumination of objects with polarized light. We consider passive or ambient illumination, such as that deriving from sunlight or a cloudy sky. The basis for the improvements in visibility observed is that single scattering by small particles introduces a significant amount of polarization into light at scattering angles near 90°: This light can then be distinguished from light scattered by an object that remains almost completely unpolarized. Results were obtained from a Monte Carlo simulation and from a small-scale experiment in which an object was immersed in a cell filled with polystyrene latex spheres suspended in water. In both cases, the results showed an improvement in contrast and visibility depth for obscuration that was due to Rayleigh particles, but less improvement was obtained for larger scatterers.

© 2003 Optical Society of America

Visibility depth improvement in active polarization imaging in scattering media

John G. Walker, Peter C. Y. Chang, and Keith I. Hopcraft
Appl. Opt. 39(27) 4933-4941 (2000)

The Effects of Particle Size on Contrast Improvement by Polarization Discrimination for Underwater Targets

G. D. Gilbert
Appl. Opt. 9(2) 421-428 (1970)

Polarization-based vision through haze

Yoav Y. Schechner, Srinivasa G. Narasimhan, and Shree K. Nayar
Appl. Opt. 42(3) 511-525 (2003)

Improvement of Underwater Visibility by Reduction of Backscatter with a Circular Polarization Technique

Gary D. Gilbert and John C. Pernicka
Appl. Opt. 6(4) 741-746 (1967)

Enhancing underwater optical imaging by using a low-pass polarization filter

Khadidja Ould Amer, Marwa Elbouz, Ayman Alfalou, Christian Brosseau, and Jaouad Hajjami
Opt. Express 27(2) 621-643 (2019)