One-shot multispectral color imaging with a stereo camera

Multispectral color imaging is a promising technology, which can solve many of the problems of traditional RGB color imaging. However, it still lacks widespread and general use because of its limitations. State of the art multispectral imaging systems need multiple shots making it not only slower but also incapable of capturing scenes in motion. Moreover, the systems are mostly costly and complex to operate. The purpose of the work described in this paper is to propose a one-shot six-channel multispectral color image acquisition system using a stereo camera or a pair of cameras in a stereoscopic configuration, and a pair of optical filters. The best pair of filters is selected from among readily available filters such that they modify the sensitivities of the two cameras in such a way that they get spread reasonably well throughout the visible spectrum and gives optimal reconstruction of spectral reflectance and/or color. As the cameras are in a stereoscopic configuration, the system is capable of acquiring 3D images as well, and stereo matching algorithms provide a solution to the image alignment problem. Thus the system can be used as a "two-in-one" multispectral-stereo system. However, this paper mainly focuses on the multispectral part. Both simulations and experiments have shown that the proposed system performs well spectrally and colorimetrically.