A genetic programming approach to deriving the spectral sensitivity of an optical system

Abstract

In color image processing, several sensors are used which respond to the light in the red, green and blue parts of the spectrum. When working with color images taken by an optical system it is very important to know the sensitivity of the entire optical system. The optical system consists of the sensor, lens and any filters which may be used. The response characteristics of the lens and filters can be measured inside the laboratory. However, for many digital cameras it is not clear how the sensors contained inside the camera respond to light. This information may not be available from the manufacturer of the camera. Even if we knew the response characteristics of the sensor, it may not be clear what algorithms are employed by the manufacturer before the data is finally stored as an image file. We show how genetic programming may be used to obtain the sensor response functions using a single image from a calibration target as input together with the reflectance data of this calibration target. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.