Infrared Image Enhancement: A Review

Under special conditions such as night, rain, and fog, visible light imaging technology often performs poorly, while radar and other imaging technologies are limited due to their high costs. Infrared imaging technology, based on the principle of thermal radiation, can provide clear imaging effects u...

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Main Authors: Qingwang Wang, Pengcheng Jin, Yuhang Wu, Liyao Zhou, Tao Shen
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IEEE 2025-01-01
Series:IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
Subjects:
Online Access:https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10817543/
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author Qingwang Wang
Pengcheng Jin
Yuhang Wu
Liyao Zhou
Tao Shen
author_facet Qingwang Wang
Pengcheng Jin
Yuhang Wu
Liyao Zhou
Tao Shen
author_sort Qingwang Wang
collection DOAJ
description Under special conditions such as night, rain, and fog, visible light imaging technology often performs poorly, while radar and other imaging technologies are limited due to their high costs. Infrared imaging technology, based on the principle of thermal radiation, can provide clear imaging effects under these extreme conditions and has a relatively low cost of use. Therefore, it has been widely applied in various fields, including military, medical, industrial, and agricultural applications. However, due to the limitations of infrared wavelengths and imaging technology, traditional infrared imaging devices struggle to capture rich texture information, leading to infrared images that lack texture details and have low resolution, which significantly restricts the further research and application of infrared imaging technology in various fields. In recent years, with the widespread attention to infrared imaging technology, researchers have proposed various new infrared image enhancement techniques. Despite this, the lack of texture information in ordinary infrared images leads to the enhancement effect of existing technologies being unsatisfactory. Therefore, we have conducted a systematic investigation of the research advancements in the field of infrared image enhancement, encompassing infrared image enhancement methods, related datasets, and evaluation metrics, with the aim of exploring a research solution that could potentially break through current technological limitations. Based on these investigations, we have evaluated the performance of various representative infrared image enhancement methods, with the hope of providing a reference for future research. In addition, this article also provides a comprehensive introduction to the potential applications of infrared image enhancement technology and discusses significant research directions for the future.
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institution Kabale University
issn 1939-1404
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language English
publishDate 2025-01-01
publisher IEEE
record_format Article
series IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
spelling doaj-art-9ecb85a1dca542e9b7b756e1ff91c3a52025-01-21T00:00:49ZengIEEEIEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing1939-14042151-15352025-01-01183281329910.1109/JSTARS.2024.352341810817543Infrared Image Enhancement: A ReviewQingwang Wang0https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5820-5357Pengcheng Jin1https://orcid.org/0009-0003-8819-5059Yuhang Wu2Liyao Zhou3https://orcid.org/0009-0006-2957-6187Tao Shen4https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1273-7950Faculty of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, ChinaFaculty of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, ChinaFaculty of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, ChinaFaculty of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, ChinaFaculty of Information Engineering and Automation, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, ChinaUnder special conditions such as night, rain, and fog, visible light imaging technology often performs poorly, while radar and other imaging technologies are limited due to their high costs. Infrared imaging technology, based on the principle of thermal radiation, can provide clear imaging effects under these extreme conditions and has a relatively low cost of use. Therefore, it has been widely applied in various fields, including military, medical, industrial, and agricultural applications. However, due to the limitations of infrared wavelengths and imaging technology, traditional infrared imaging devices struggle to capture rich texture information, leading to infrared images that lack texture details and have low resolution, which significantly restricts the further research and application of infrared imaging technology in various fields. In recent years, with the widespread attention to infrared imaging technology, researchers have proposed various new infrared image enhancement techniques. Despite this, the lack of texture information in ordinary infrared images leads to the enhancement effect of existing technologies being unsatisfactory. Therefore, we have conducted a systematic investigation of the research advancements in the field of infrared image enhancement, encompassing infrared image enhancement methods, related datasets, and evaluation metrics, with the aim of exploring a research solution that could potentially break through current technological limitations. Based on these investigations, we have evaluated the performance of various representative infrared image enhancement methods, with the hope of providing a reference for future research. In addition, this article also provides a comprehensive introduction to the potential applications of infrared image enhancement technology and discusses significant research directions for the future.https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10817543/Applications of infrared imagesinfrared image enhancementinfrared image super-resolutioninfrared image texture information recoveryinfrared imaginginfrared remote sensing
spellingShingle Qingwang Wang
Pengcheng Jin
Yuhang Wu
Liyao Zhou
Tao Shen
Infrared Image Enhancement: A Review
IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Applied Earth Observations and Remote Sensing
Applications of infrared images
infrared image enhancement
infrared image super-resolution
infrared image texture information recovery
infrared imaging
infrared remote sensing
title Infrared Image Enhancement: A Review
title_full Infrared Image Enhancement: A Review
title_fullStr Infrared Image Enhancement: A Review
title_full_unstemmed Infrared Image Enhancement: A Review
title_short Infrared Image Enhancement: A Review
title_sort infrared image enhancement a review
topic Applications of infrared images
infrared image enhancement
infrared image super-resolution
infrared image texture information recovery
infrared imaging
infrared remote sensing
url https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10817543/
work_keys_str_mv AT qingwangwang infraredimageenhancementareview
AT pengchengjin infraredimageenhancementareview
AT yuhangwu infraredimageenhancementareview
AT liyaozhou infraredimageenhancementareview
AT taoshen infraredimageenhancementareview