An automatic MTF measurement method for remote sensing cameras

The modulation transfer function (MTF) for remote sensing imaging sensors sometimes need be automatically measured both in order to fast calibrate them for best performance while working on board and to do (near) real-time digital compensation for inevitable degradation. In this paper, we presented such an automatic MTF measurement approach. It is based on the detection of straight lines with Hough transforms. Once qualified lines are determined, the MTF is estimated by a step edge method. Experiments with IKONOS images showed the proposed technique has a high success rate for automatically measuring the MTF with an acceptable accuracy.