[Design of full-polarized and multi-spectral imaging system based on LCVR]

A new full-polarized multi-spectral imaging system is described, which uses electronically controlled LCVR (liquid crystal variable retarder) to modulate the full-polarized state of light in the visible to IR range. The system consisted of optical lenses, LCVRs, filters and CCD. Firstly, the system structure, working theory and optical design are introduced in the present paper. A polarization calibration method is provided and the calibration system was set up, which realized high-precision polarization calibration using a small polarized source. Then, a field experiment with the imaging system was carried out. Polarized spectral images with higher spectral and spatial resolution were collected. Finally, the data acquired were rough processed to get polarization degree image of the targets. It is concluded that the experiment has proved that the imaging system is effective in obtaining full-polarized and multi- spectral data. The image captured by the system can be applied to object identification and object classification.