Abstract: Aiming at  the problem that the current traditional method of analyzing target background difference using polarization parametric images did not fully consider the unique polarization properties generated by light acting on objects, we proposed a target background difference feature analysis method based on the statistical characteristics of polarization direction features, from a new  polarization direction information to analyze target background difference. Firstly, the polarization direction vector image was constructed by extracting the polarization direction information from the polarization angle image, which solved the problem that the polarization angle image could not be used effectively and directly due to too much noise. Secondly, the orthogonal difference calculation was carried out for the four polarization direction intensity images respectively to obtain the polarization orthogonal difference component images, and the information of the polarization angle intensity images around the ±α polarization direction was supplemented to obtain the polarization direction statistical images. By extracting the three polarization feature images of the four polarization directions, the problem of traditional polarization parametric images with less prominent target in the complex background was solved. The experimental results show that objects of different materials have different polarization directions, and the polarization direction feature image obtained by extracting the polarization direction information can more clearly identify the target in the complex background. The objective evaluation index show that the polarization direction feature image corresponding to the polarization direction orientation of the target area in the polarization direction vector image is richer in expressing the information of the target, and is more informative than the polarization direction feature image corresponding to other polarization directions.  Therefore, the polarization vector image can be used to quickly extract the polarization feature image with prominent target features.

Key words: polarization image,  , polarization direction, feature extraction, polarization statistical characteristics