Fusion-based infrared single-pixel imaging

Infrared imaging is widely used in low-light environments, remote sensing, and camouflage recognition, due to its high sensitivity, response, and all-weather adaptability. However, conventional infrared cameras are limited by their high cost per pixel, low resolution, and low contrast, resulting in the loss of valuable scene information. To address this challenge, we report a method for the fusion of high-resolution visible light images and single-pixel infrared images using a single-pixel detector. Our method consists of two modules: the single-pixel imaging (SPI) module and the fusion module. The SPI module uses a spatial light modulation system to obtain a one-dimensional measurement of the infrared image and then uses the reconstruction algorithm to obtain the infrared single-pixel image, thus avoiding the need for high-cost infrared cameras and obtaining the high-quality infrared single-pixel image with low sampling rate. The fusion module uses an infrared single-pixel image and a high-resolution visible image to obtain the hybrid image which combines the interested information from the visible light image and the infrared single-pixel image, thereby achieving low-cost imaging that preserves the detailed information from visible images and maintains the salient features from infrared images. A series of simulations demonstrate that our method benefits from the high resolution and high contrast of visible light imaging and the high sensitivity of infrared imaging. Our technique has the potential to improve complex environment detection, nighttime detection, and covert detection.