Characteristics of stereo images from detectors in focal plane array

Abstract

The equivalent ray geometry of two horizontally aligned detectors at the focal plane of the main antenna in a millimeter wave imaging system is analyzed to reveal the reason why the images from the detectors are fused as an image with a depth sense. Scanning the main antenna in both horizontal and vertical directions makes each detector perform as a camera, and the two detectors can work like a stereo camera in the millimeter wave range. However, the stereo camera geometry is different from that of the stereo camera used in the visual spectral range because the detectors' viewing directions are diverging to each other and they are a certain distance apart. The depth sense is mainly induced by the distance between detectors. The images obtained from the detectors in the millimeter imaging system are perceived with a good depth sense. The disparities responsible for the depth sense are identified in the images. (C) 2011 Optical Society of America