Single image haze removal using improved dark channel prior

Environmental effects, mist, haze, fog, snow and rain considerably affect visibility and result in degradation of image quality. The poor quality weather-degraded images perpetually affect performance of automated surveillance and tracking systems. Water droplets present in atmosphere cause mist, fog and haze effects due to scattering of light as it propagates through these particles. These chromatic effects of image scattering can be reversed for retrieval of image information. Scattering of light affects image contents in proportion to the depth of scene. In this paper single image dehazing technique using dark channel prior has been further refined. The proposed model considers chromatic as well achromatic aspects of the image to define the Dark Channel. New definition of Dark Channel improves quality of restored haze free images. Contrast of the restored images has been considerably improved vis-à-vis color fidelity further refined. Major application areas of real time single image dehazing include surveillance and tracking system, consumer electronics and entertainment industry.