Wavelet-Based Visible and Infrared Image Fusion: A Comparative Study.
This paper evaluates different wavelet-based cross-spectral image fusion strategies adopted to merge visible and infrared images. The objective is to find the best setup independently of the evaluation metric used to measure the performance. Quantitative performance results are obtained with state of the art approaches together with adaptations proposed in the current work. The options evaluated in the current work result from the combination of different setups in the wavelet image decomposition stage together with different fusion strategies for the final merging stage that generates the resulting representation. Most of the approaches evaluate results according to the application for which they are intended for. Sometimes a human observer is selected to judge the quality of the obtained results. In the current work, quantitative values are considered in order to find correlations between setups and performance of obtained results; these correlations can be used to define a criteria for selecting the best fusion strategy for a given pair of cross-spectral images. The whole procedure is evaluated with a large set of correctly registered visible and infrared image pairs, including both Near InfraRed (NIR) and Long Wave InfraRed (LWIR).
Facultad de Ingenier&#237;a en Electricidad y Computaci&#243;n, CIDIS, Escuela Superior Polit&#233;cnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Campus Gustavo Galindo, Km 30.5 v&#237;a Perimetral, Guayaquil 09-01-5863, Ecuador. angel.sappa@cvc.uab.es.|Computer Vision Center, Edifici O, Campus UAB, Bellaterra 08193, Barcelona, Spain. angel.sappa@cvc.uab.es.
Angel D
AD
Sappa
Facultad de Ingenier&#237;a en Electricidad y Computaci&#243;n, CIDIS, Escuela Superior Polit&#233;cnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Campus Gustavo Galindo, Km 30.5 v&#237;a Perimetral, Guayaquil 09-01-5863, Ecuador. jcarvajal91@gmail.com.
Juan A
JA
Carvajal
Computer Vision Center, Edifici O, Campus UAB, Bellaterra 08193, Barcelona, Spain. caguilera@cvc.uab.es.|Computer Science Department, Universitat Aut&#242;noma de Barcelona, Campus UAB, Bellaterra 08193, Barcelona, Spain. caguilera@cvc.uab.es.
Cristhian A
CA
Aguilera
Institute for Systems and Computer Engineering, Technology and Science, R. Dr. Roberto Frias 465, Porto 4200, Portugal. m.riem.oliveira@gmail.com.|Institute of Electronics and Informatics Engineering of Aveiro, Campus Universit&#225;rio de Santiago 3810-193 Aveiro, Portugal. m.riem.oliveira@gmail.com.
Miguel
M
Oliveira
Facultad de Ingenier&#237;a en Electricidad y Computaci&#243;n, CIDIS, Escuela Superior Polit&#233;cnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Campus Gustavo Galindo, Km 30.5 v&#237;a Perimetral, Guayaquil 09-01-5863, Ecuador. dgromero@espol.edu.ec.
Dennis
D
Romero
Facultad de Ingenier&#237;a en Electricidad y Computaci&#243;n, CIDIS, Escuela Superior Polit&#233;cnica del Litoral, ESPOL, Campus Gustavo Galindo, Km 30.5 v&#237;a Perimetral, Guayaquil 09-01-5863, Ecuador. boris.vintimilla@espol.edu.ec.
Boris X
BX
Vintimilla
discrete wavelet transform; fusion evaluation metrics; image fusion; visible and infrared imaging