An Approach for Underwater Target Detection by Inhomogeneous Illumination

The key of underwater target detection is to solve the back-scattering problem which is generated by the suspended particles during the light transmission. In fact, for underwater homogeneous illumination or laser, the strong back-scattering is mainly generated at the range close to the detector, yielding low visibility. This paper presents a new approach for underwater target detection by inhomogeneous illumination, which intensity distribution relates to the attenuation pattern of light transmission with an inverse form. The proposed approach was tested in underwater experiments, showing that it is effective to decrease the back-scattering within a wide field of view (FOV) and to increase the detection distance.