Title :
Underwater stereo image enhancement using a new physical model
Author :
Shijie Zhang ; Jing Zhang ; Shuai Fang ; Yang Cao
Author_Institution :
Dept. of Autom., Univ. of Sci. & Technol. of China, Hefei, China
Abstract :
Stereo image applications are becoming more and more prevalent. However, there has been little research on stereo image enhancement. In this paper, we address the challenging problem of underwater stereo image enhancement. A new underwater imaging model is proposed and it can better describe the degradation of underwater images including color distortion and contrast attenuation. In addition, a novel observation that the intensity of the water part within the image is mainly contributed by the scattering light is also proposed. Coupling the proposed model and prior together, the parameters of scattering light can be estimated. Then an iterative approach to process stereo matching and stereo image enhancement alternatively is presented, which can significantly improve the quality of the images and depth maps. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method can significantly enhance the image visibility and achieve better depth perception.
Keywords :
image enhancement; iterative methods; stereo image processing; color distortion; contrast attenuation; depth maps; depth perception; image quality; image visibility; iterative approach; physical model; scattering light; underwater stereo image enhancement; Attenuation; Image color analysis; Image enhancement; Scattering; Stereo vision; Three-dimensional displays; stereo enhancement; underwater;
Conference_Titel :
Image Processing (ICIP), 2014 IEEE International Conference on
Conference_Location :
Paris
DOI :
10.1109/ICIP.2014.7026097