Improved Kalman-filter nonuniformity correction algorithm for infrared focal plane arrays

An improved nonuniformity correction algorithm based on the Kalman-filter is presented. This paper gives an introduction to a piecewise linear model of the detector response curve, and the nonuniformity correction algorithm based on a Kalman-filter is extended and improved, which is Suitable for infrared focal plane arrays with nonlinearity of the response characteristic. Compared to the original algorithm, it can resolve not only the problems of detector offset and gain drift with time, but also the influence of the detector nonlinear response to the nonuniformity correction performance to a certain extent, so it provides better nonuniformity correction. The NUC ability of the improved algorithm is demonstrated with real infrared image sequences. (C) 2008 Published by Elsevier B.V.