Radka Tezaur

A system for estimating optics blur PSFs from test chart images

Camera lenses suffer from aberrations that can cause noticeable blur in captured images, especially when large apertures are used. With very small apertures, images become less sharp due to diffraction. The blur that is due to camera optics can be removed by deconvolution if the PSFs that accurately characterize this blur are available. In this paper we describe a new system developed by us that allows estimating optics blur PSFs in an efficient manner. It consists of a new test chart with black square tiles containing small white random circle pattern and software for fully automatic processing of captured images of this chart. It can process a high resolution image of the chart and produce PSF estimates for a dense set of field position covering the entire image frame within a couple of minutes. The system has been tested with several different lenses and the estimated PSFs have been successfully used for removing optics blur from a variety of different images.