High efficiency multi-spectral polarization imaging system

High-resolution polarization images and multispectral data cubes of an object are difficult to capture simultaneously using traditional polarization, or multispectral imaging systems. Directly integrating band-pass filters into a polarization imaging system, or polarizers into a multispectral imaging system results in a low-light efficiency imaging system. In this paper, a high-efficiency multispectral polarization imaging system (HEMSPIS) has been proposed to acquire the spectral and polarization information of an object, simultaneously. By combining a notch filter array and a multi-camera imaging system, the polarization and multispectral information of an object are acquired simultaneously, and a compressive sensing-based method is employed to reconstruct the multispectral polarization data cube. The performance of our method has been demonstrated experimentally through observing polarization and multispectral images of polarization samples and natural senses. In comparison to the color polarization camera, the proposed imaging system provides a higher light efficiency and images with a higher signal-to-noise ratio.