A novel technique for real-time non-uniformity correction of infrared scene projectors

The state-of-the-art in laboratory testing of Infrared (IR) missile seekers and Target Acquisition Systems (TAS) is centered on advancements of IR Scene Projectors (IRSP) based on resistor array technology. Resistor array IR scene projectors provide realistic and repeatable in-band test scenarios. However, resistor array scene projectors are characterized with variability in the resistance of each resistor due to an inherent variability in the micro-fabrication process. This variability, called non-uniformity, manifests as fixed-pattern noise causing unwanted artifacts in the output scene.; Current non-uniformity correction techniques use straight-line approximations to interpolate between the calibration points. This thesis presents a novel technique based on memory lookup tables aimed to improve the fidelity of estimations between the data points and increase real-time performance. By providing a capability to pre-calculate the correction value of each resistor for each of the possible pixel values, a purely memory based table lookup approach can replace the current technique.