Underwater imaging and optics: Recent advances

Obtaining satisfactory visibility of undersea objects has been historically difficult due to the absorptive and scattering properties of seawater. Mitigating these effects has been a long term research focus, but recent advancements in hardware, software, and algorithmic methods have led to noticeable improvement in system operational range. This paper is intended to provide a summary of recently reported research in the area of Underwater Optics and Vision and briefly covers advances in the following areas: (1) Image formation and image processing methods; (2) Extended range imaging techniques; (3) Imaging using spatial coherency (e.g. holography); and (4) Multiple-dimensional image acquisition and image processing.