Patent ID: 7274449

Claim:
A system for determining polarization profiles of points in a scene from video frames using Stokes parameters, the system comprising: a scene having a region that emits scene light rays that correspond to the points in the scene; a color filter; a Stokes filter that comprises a rotating retarder having angular positions Ω, and a first linear polarizer having a transmission axis; a correlator that emits a correlator light ray, wherein the correlator comprises a uniform light source, a second linear polarizer, and a fixed retarder; a video camera having a video frame; and a computer system, wherein the scene light rays and the correlator light ray are substantially simultaneously transmitted through the color filter and the Stokes filter to the video camera; images corresponding to the scene light rays and the correlator light ray are projected onto respective pixels in the video frame and recorded as two-dimensional (2-D) arrays; and when the transmission axis of the first linear polarizer is fixed, the images corresponding to the scene light rays and the correlator light ray from four unique ones of the angular positions Ω of the rotating retarder are used by programming in the computer system to calculate respective Stokes parameters of the points in the scene.