Dynamic range compression and contrast enhancement in IR imaging systems

The visualization of IR images on traditional display devices is often complicated by their high dynamic range. Classical dynamic range compression techniques based on simple linear mapping, reduce the perceptibility of small objects and often prevent the human observer from understanding some of the important details. Thus, more sophisticated techniques are required to adapt the recorded signal to the monitor maintaining, and possibly improving, object visibility and image contrast. The problem has already been studied with regard to images acquired in the visible spectral domain, but it has been scarcely investigated in the IR domain. In this work, we address this latter subject and propose a new method for IR dynamic range compression which stems from the lesson learnt from existing techniques. First, we review the techniques proposed in the literature for contrast enhancement and dynamic range compression of images acquired in the visible domain. Then, we present the new algorithm which accounts for the specific characteristics of IR images. The performance of the proposed method are studied on experimental IR data and compared with those yielded by two well established algorithms.