Image Enhancement Using Spiral Phase and Computational Imaging

Image enhancement techniques improve the image quality by applying electronic image processing. Image enhancement is very critical in case of long-range target imaging and plays an important role in target detection at long ranges. We propose a hybrid optical-digital approach using computational imaging which combines and utilizes both the optical imaging properties and processing technique to get enhanced image quality. In the proposed method, two images are recorded, one with normal PSF and another with PSF modulated by spiral phase plate in the pupil plane. Two images and corresponding PSF are used to recover the image using Generalized Wiener filtering and resulting image is improved in terms contrast at higher spatial frequencies. We show the simulation and experimental results to validate the technique. The results suggest design of smaller, lightweight systems with improved image quality using above technique.