Algorithms for Superresolution of Midwave IR Imagery with Suprapixel Elliptic Dithering

The proposal is to develop superresolution algorithms for MWIR cameras that are circularly dithered and fitted with microelectromechanical motion sensors (MEMS) to determine and register platform motion. It is intended for use in a ship borne environment, where the background may be highly dynamic or even featureless, except for a target of interest - thus presenting difficulties for optical flow based methods. The technique uses a simple dithering element, using either a simple wedge prism, or more simply a slightly off-normal rotating mirror mounted 45 degrees to the camera axis. The dither is suprapixel, and is well determined by monitoring the shaft of the dither motor. The MEMS based gyro is used to measure camera motion relative to the scene. All superresolution targets are assumed to be in the far-field, thus only translation and rotations are considered for frame registartion. Subpixel registration is made possible by using accurate, low latency, measurements from the inertial sensor and the dither controller. The project is implemented using actual sea scenery collected from a test vessel, as well as simulation for determination of requirements for sensors, optics and cameras. The emphasis is on algorithm development, with minimal hardware modification to currently available MWIR cameras.