Feature and data-level fusion of infrared and visual images

In both military and civilian applications, increasing interest is being shown in fusing IR and vision images for improved situational awareness. In previous work, the authors have developed a fusion method for combining the thermal and vision images into a single image emphasizing the most salient features of the surrounding environment. This approach is based on the assumption that although the thermal and vision data are uncorrelated, they are complementary and can be fused using a suitable disjunctive function. This paper, as a continuation of that work, will describe the development of an information based real-time data level fusion method. In addition, applicability of the algorithms that we developed for data level fusion to feature level techniques will be investigated.