Fusion of infrared and visible images using multiscale morphology

Abstract

Extracting useful image features and preserving details effectively is a crucial part of fusion of images. Infrared images can distinguish objects from their background based on the difference in radiation. In the other hand, visible images can provide textured details consistent with the human visual system. The fusion of these two types of images can combine the advantages of thermal radiation information in infrared images and detailed texture information in visible images. In this work, we propose an algorithm of fusion of infrared and visible images using the multiscale top-hat transformation. The extraction of bright and dark regions from the images is done using two structuring elements. This algorithm provides significantly better results in contrast, brightness and texture than other state-of-theart algorithms.