Fusion of multifocus images to maximize image information

Abstract

When an image of a 3-D scene is captured, only scene parts at the focus plane appear sharp. Scene parts in front of or behind the focus plane appear blurred. In order to create an image where all scene parts appear sharp, it is necessary to capture images of the scene at different focus levels and fuse the images. In this paper, first registration of multifocus images is discussed and then an algorithm to fuse the registered images is described. The algorithm divides the image domain into uniform blocks and for each block identifies the image with the highest contrast. The images selected in this manner are then locally blended to create an image that has overall maximum contrast. Examples demonstrating registration and fusion of multifocus images are given and discussed.