Specifications for microbolometer defective detector pixel outages, cluster sizes, and row/column outages are common for many electro-optical imaging programs. These specifications for bad pixels and clusters often do not take into account the user’s ability to perceive the lack of information from areas of a focal plane with outages that are replaced using substitution algorithms. This is because the defective pixels are typically specified as a sensor parameter and does not take into account a camera’s system level descriptors: modulation transfer function (MTF), outage substitution strategy, post processing MTF, display performance, and observer’s psychophysical performance. These parameters combine to determine the total system MTF, which can be used to determine the minimum resolution at which a replaced pixel or cluster can be observed. This study analyzes different defective pixel specifications and their visibility from the system level descriptors and proposes specifications that are better aligned to camera performance.
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