Infrared (IR) image synthesis method of IR real background and modeled IR target

Abstract An infrared (IR) image synthesis method is proposed for the synthesis of a real IR background and modeled IR target, used as IR signatures, as well as a band-transformation between short wave IR (SWIR), middle wave IR (MWIR), and long wave IR (LWIR) in an IR imaging system simulation. IR target images are created by the RadThermIR software, an IR signature prediction software. Individual radiances for IR signatures, corresponding to the max/min temperatures of a real IR background and modeled IR target image, are calculated with Planck’s law. First, an IR background of an arbitrary wavelength band is transformed to one of the other wavelength bands with the temperature-radiance characteristics. And then, after adjusting the gray levels of the arbitrary IR target signatures based on their radiances for the wavelength band of the transformed IR background, these IR target and background signatures can be synthesized as one image for a specific wavelength band. The experimental results show that the modeled IR target images, such as a modeled helicopter and F16, can be synthesized on the IR background images of three IR wavelength bands. And we confirmed that IR background images of the three IR wavelength bands can diversely be synthesized with the modeled IR targets as the setting temperature of the target and background, the target distance, and the field of view (FOV) arbitrarily.