An apparatus includes a memory and a processor circuit. The memory may be configured to store one or more frames of image pixel data. Each of the frames generally comprises red (R) samples, green (G) samples, blue (B) samples, and infrared (IR) samples. The processor circuit may be configured to generate an infrared image for each frame. The infrared image generally has a number of infrared (IR) pixels greater than the number of the infrared (IR) samples of each frame. The processor circuit generally performs interpolation utilizing the infrared (IR) samples and one or more of the red (R) samples, the green (G) samples, and the blue (B) samples of each frame in generating the infrared image for each frame.