Using Color Feature Generation to Fuse Thermal and Reflective Images

Abstract

This paper presents an image fusion method based on the observation that the human visual system integrates high-resolution spatial features and a low-resolution color map to form the perception of high-resolution color. Image fusion is implemented by letting the eye “color” a high-resolution near-infrared image with the features of a long-wave thermal infrared image. Several example uses of this fusion method are provided, in which image-intensifier and thermal images are fused to display one image with the prominent features of both constituent images. Other uses of this fusion method are also explored and examples provided.