Jones formalism for image fusion

Abstract

. We suggest a novel approach for the fusion of visible ( u ) and infrared (  ) images, basing on analogy between the mathematical forms of a Jones vector of elliptically polarized light wave and a complex 2D vector 0   composed of the images u and  . Since there is no restriction on which of the two images should be chosen as a real (or imaginary) component, one can construct 0 u i     or     0 1 2 , Tr pos iu     , where the superscript “ Tr ” denotes the operation of transposing, i.e. 0   the analogy with the Jones vector of light wave, the vector 0 , pos neg   can be transformed as 0 , neg pos J      , with J being a complex 2 2  -matrix, an analogue of the Jones matrix for optically anisotropic medium. The above analogy with the Jones formalism allows one to synthesize the fused images using three types of the fusion algorithms, ‘amplitude’, ‘azimuth’ and ‘ellipticity’ ones. Varying the components of