Photon Limited Images and Their Restoration
Goodman, J. W., John F. Belsher · Defense Technical Information Center (DTIC) · 1976
The prime practical limitation encountered in attempts to restore degraded imagery arises from noise inherent in the detected image data. In the first part of this report a model is developed which can be used to mathematically and statistically describe an image detected at low light levels. This model serves to clarify some basic properties of photon noise, and provides a basis for the analysis of image restoration. In the second part the problem of linear least-square restoration of imagery limited by photon noise is considered. The form of the invariant least-square restoration filter is derived using the statistical model appropriate for photon noise.