Multi-stage Image Fusion Method Based on Differential Dual-Branch Encoder
HONG Yulu1, WU Xiaojun1, XU Tianyang1
1.Jiangsu Provincial Engineering Laboratory of Pattern Recognition and Computing Intelligence, School of Artificial Intelligence and Computer Science, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122
Abstract：In the existing infrared and visible image fusion methods, the details of the fused image are lost seriously and the visual effect is poor. Aiming at the problems, a multi-stage image fusion method based on differential dual-branch encoder is proposed. The features of multi-modal images are extracted by two encoders with different network structures to enhance the diversity of features. A multi-stage fusion strategy is designed to achieve refined image fusion. Firstly, primary fusion is performed on the differential features extracted by the two encoding branches in the differential dual-branch encoder. Then, mid-level fusion on the saliency features of the multi-modal images is conducted in the fusion stage. Finally, the long-range lateral connections are adopted to transmit shallow features of the differential dual-branch encoder implemented to the decoder and guide the fusion process and the image reconstruction simultaneously. Experimental results show the proposed method enhances the detailed information of the fused images and achieves better performance in both visual effect and objective evaluation.
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2022, Vol. 35 
