1Key Laboratory for Physical Electronics and Devices of the Ministry of Education, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049 2Shaanxi Key Lab of Information Photonic Technique, Xi'an Jiaotong University, Xi'an 710049
Abstract：For conventional laser range-gated underwater imaging (RGI) systems, the target image is obtained based on the reflective character of the target. One of the main performance limiting factors of conventional RGI is that, when the underwater target has the same reflectivity as the background, it is difficult to distinguish the target from the background. An improvement is to use the polarization components of the reflected light. On the basis of conventional RGI, we propose a polarimetric RGI system that employs a polarization generator and a polarization analyzer to detect and recognize underwater objects. Experimental results demonstrate that, by combining polarization with intensity information, we are better able to enhance identification of the underwater target from other objects of the same reflectivity.
2015, Vol. 32 
