Method and Apparatus of Determining the Orientation of Texture from Polarization Parameters

University of Arizona
posted on 10/19/2009

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Background: In many imaging applications, some information about the object may be beyond the pixel resolution of the imaging system.  This information may come in the form of a material texture and/or the orientation of the texture.  Because the scattering properties of different textures are largely polarization dependent, polarization measurements often provide more information about the scattering object than traditional imaging methods. 

Researchers at the University of Arizona's  College of Optical Sciences have developed a method, apparatus, and computer program that determines the orientation of a one-dimensional linear texture with one Mueller matrix measurement after referenced characterizations of the object.  

Applications:
• Target and texture recognition
• Machine vision
• Remote sensing
• Target identification and classification

Advantages:
• Provides detailed information about the texture of an object with a single measurement
• Requires a basic imaging system with a single detector
• The measurement apparatus and algorithm may be used for a wide range of applications 
• Easy to implement in existing polarimeters, making the product less expensive to develop and implement

Lead Inventors: Prof. Russell A. Chipman, Hannah D. Noble

Stage of Development: A prototype has been built and tested, showing successful measurement of the desired textural orientation.

Status: Provisional Patent Application filed; seeking commercial partner to license

Refer to Case # UA04-005