On the standard deviation in charge-coupled device cameras: A variogram-based technique for nonuniform images

When estimating the standard deviation of a magnitude with spatial dependence, it is necessary to carry out several mea- surements at every location where the magnitude is estimated. However, in image applications the standard deviation is commonly measured by means of only one high-uniform image. This proce- dure tends to increase the standard deviation due to spatial nonuni- formity of the image. In this work we propose a new technique based on the variogram, which is a function that measures the spa- tial correlation of the image, that can be employed to accurately estimate the standard deviation of nonuniform images obtained by charge-coupled device cameras. © 2002 SPIE and IS&T.