Calibration and Mosaicing of Forward-Scan Sonar DIDSON Images

DIDSON (Dual-frequency identification sonar), a new generation of acoustic video cameras, is applied to research and detect the underwater environment in this paper. In order to solve the shortcomings of the DIDSON in underwater environment, we propose a real-time forward-scan sonar image mosaicing method and system. Through a series of processing to the DIDSON images, such as image registration, image matching and image fusion, a few DIDSON images with small viewing angle and low resolution have be mosaicing to be a large-scale and high resolution sonar image. This improves DIDSON's target detection and expand observing angle to detect bigger underwater targets.