Multispectral imaging and image processing

The color accuracy of conventional RGB cameras is not sufficient for many color-critical applications. One of these applications, namely the measurement of color defects in yarns, is why Prof. Til Aach and the Institute of Image Processing and Computer Vision (RWTH Aachen University, Germany) started off with multispectral imaging. The first acquisition device was a camera using a monochrome sensor and seven bandpass color filters positioned sequentially in front of it. The camera allowed sampling the visible wavelength range more accurately and reconstructing the spectra for each acquired image position. An overview will be given over several optical and imaging aspects of the multispectral camera that have been investigated. For instance, optical aberrations caused by filters and camera lens deteriorate the quality of captured multispectral images. The different aberrations were analyzed thoroughly and compensated based on models for the optical elements and the imaging chain by utilizing image processing. With this compensation, geometrical distortions disappear and sharpness is enhanced, without reducing the color accuracy of multispectral images. Strong foundations in multispectral imaging were laid and a fruitful cooperation was initiated with Prof. Bernhard Hill. Current research topics like stereo multispectral imaging and goniometric multispectral measurements that are further explored with his expertise will also be presented in this work.