Linear Polarization Demosaicking for Monochrome and Colour Polarization Focal Plane Arrays

Division-of-focal-plane (DoFP) polarization image sensors allow for snapshot imaging of linear polarization effects with inexpensive and straightforward setups. However, conventional interpolation based image reconstruction methods for such sensors produce unreliable and noisy estimates of quantities such as Degree of Linear Polarization (DoLP) or Angle of Linear Polarization (AoLP). In this paper, we propose a polarization demosaicking algorithm by inverting the polarization image formation model for both monochrome and colour DoFP cameras. Compared to previous interpolation methods, our approach can significantly reduce noise induced artefacts and drastically increase the accuracy in estimating polarization states. We evaluate and demonstrate the performance of the methods on a new high-resolution colour polarization dataset. Simulation and experimental results show that the proposed reconstruction and analysis tools offer an effective solution to polarization imaging.