Typical Effects Modeling & Performance Evaluation Of IR Imaging Systems

Imaging process modeling and system performance evaluation of IR imaging systems (IRISs) avail to optimize system design and evaluate imagery and performance. So system modeling is of significance not only in theoretical research but also in practical application.With ray tracing the imaging process is analyzed in this paper. And with ray tracing and post-processing several typical effects resulting from main elements of IRISs such as optics, detector and atmosphere are studied and modeled. These typical effects on imaging are simulated with ray tracing, post-processing and pixel-based processing. Besides these, based on basic parameters of IRISs, the system performance is evaluated with the Johnson concept after the important system performance indexes are modeled. Good results are obtained from above study.Several highlights are developed in this paper. For example, the geometric effect and vignetting are simulated with the synthetic method in which they are modeled with ray tracing and then simulated with pixel-based processing. The effects of detector noise on imaging are simulated with the three-dimension model. The theory of pixel transfer function is extended and developed, and microscanned images of four patterns are simulated with good results.