Biologically Inspired Polarization-Difference Imaging

Without appropriate instruments, human eyes cannot effectively sense the polarization of light. However, it is well known that the eyes of certain animal species are sensitive to light´s polarization. Motivated and inspired by hypotheses about the polarization sensitivity of the visual systems of such animals, our research group has been studying and developing an imaging methodology based on "polarization-difference" signals. We have shown that our man-made polarization-difference imaging (PDI) technique can, under certain circumstances, substantially improve contrast and enhance visibility of targets in scattering media. In this talk, a review of our work in the area of biologically inspired PDI will be given and some of our recent results in PDI of objects will be presented and discussed.