Infrared and Visible Image Fusion: From Data Compatibility to Task Adaption

Infrared-visible image fusion (IVIF) is a fundamental and critical task in the field of computer vision. Its aim is to integrate the unique characteristics of both infrared and visible spectra into a holistic representation. Since 2018, growing amount and diversity IVIF approaches step into a deep-learning era, encompassing introduced a broad spectrum of networks or loss functions for improving visual enhancement. As research deepens and practical demands grow, several intricate issues like data compatibility, perception accuracy, and efficiency cannot be ignored. Regrettably, there is a lack of recent surveys that comprehensively introduce and organize this expanding domain of knowledge. Given the current rapid development, this paper aims to fill the existing gap by providing a comprehensive survey that covers a wide array of aspects. Initially, we introduce a multi-dimensional framework to elucidate the prevalent learning-based IVIF methodologies, spanning topics from basic visual enhancement strategies to data compatibility, task adaptability, and further extensions. Subsequently, we delve into a profound analysis of these new approaches, offering a detailed lookup table to clarify their core ideas. Last but not the least, We also summarize performance comparisons quantitatively and qualitatively, covering registration, fusion and follow-up high-level tasks. Beyond delving into the technical nuances of these learning-based fusion approaches, we also explore potential future directions and open issues that warrant further exploration by the community.