Getting NDVI Spectral Bands from a Single Standard RGB Digital Camera: A Methodological Approach

Multispectral images including red and near-infrared bands have proved their efficiency for vegetation-soil discrimination and agricultural monitoring in remote sensing applications. But they remain rarely used in ground and UAV imagery, due to a limited availibility of adequate 2D imaging devices. In this paper, a generic methodology is proposed to obtain simultaneously the near-infrared and red bands from a standard RGB camera, after having removed the near-infrared blocking filter inside. This method has been applied with two new generation SLR cameras (Canon 500D and Sigma SD14). NDVI values obtained from these devices have been compared with reference values for a set of soil and vegetation luminance spectra. The quality of the results shows that NDVI bands can now be acquired with high spatial resolution 2D imaging devices, opening new opportunities for crop monitoring applications.