Underwater image enhancement by dehazing and color correction

Chongyi Li; Jichang Guo

doi:10.1117/1.JEI.24.3.033023

22 June 2015 Underwater image enhancement by dehazing and color correction

Chongyi Li, Jichang Guo

Author Affiliations +

Journal of Electronic Imaging, Vol. 24, Issue 3, 033023 (June 2015). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JEI.24.3.033023

Abstract

Poor visibility due to the effects of light absorption and scattering is challenging for processing underwater images. We propose an approach based on dehazing and color correction algorithms for underwater image enhancement. First, a simple dehazing algorithm is applied to remove the effects of haze in the underwater image. Second, color compensation, histogram equalization, saturation, and intensity stretching are used to improve contrast, brightness, color, and visibility of the underwater image. Furthermore, bilateral filtering is utilized to address the problem of the noise caused by the physical properties of the medium and the histogram equalization algorithm. In order to evaluate the performance of the proposed approach, we compared our results with six existing methods using the subjective technique, objective technique, and color cast tests. The results show that the proposed approach outperforms the six existing methods. The enhanced images, as a result of implementing the proposed approach, are characterized by relatively genuine color, increased contrast and brightness, reduced noise level, and better visibility.

Citation Download Citation

Chongyi Li and Jichang Guo "Underwater image enhancement by dehazing and color correction," Journal of Electronic Imaging 24(3), 033023 (22 June 2015). https://doi.org/10.1117/1.JEI.24.3.033023

Published: 22 June 2015

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