Simultaneous capturing of RGB and additional band images using hybrid color filter array

Extra band information in addition to the RGB, such as the near-infrared (NIR) and the ultra-violet, is valuable for many applications. In this paper, we propose a novel color filter array (CFA), which we call “hybrid CFA,” and a demosaicking algorithm for the simultaneous capturing of the RGB and the additional band images. Our proposed hybrid CFA and demosaicking algorithm do not rely on any specific correlation between the RGB and the additional band. Therefore, the additional band can be arbitrarily decided by users. Experimental results demonstrate that our proposed demosaicking algorithm with the proposed hybrid CFA can provide the additional band image while keeping the RGB image almost the same quality as the image acquired by using the standard Bayer CFA.