Laser Illuminated Imaging: Beam and Scene Deconvolution Algorithm

Laser illuminated imaging systems deal with several physical challenges that must be overcome to achieve high-resolution images of the target. Noise sources like background noise, photon counting noise, and laser speckle noise will all greatly affect the imaging systems ability to produce a high-resolution image. An even bigger challenge to laser illuminated imaging systems is atmospheric turbulence and the effect that it will have on the imaging system. The illuminating beam will experience tilt, causing the beam to wander off the center of the target during propagation. The light returning to the detector will similarly be affected by turbulence, and it too will wander off the center of the detector. The effects of tilt will be noticed in a multi-fame data set by the illuminating beam and the object shifting around the frame. This research effort uses expectation maximization to track the beam and scene motion from frame-to-frame along with a deconvolution algorithm to produce a high-resolution image of the target. Components of the expectation maximization beam and scene tracking algorithm will then be used with cross-correlation to create a hybrid algorithm to create exceptionally clear images of the target object