Restoring degraded underwater images is a challenging ill-posed problem. The existing prior-based approaches have limited performance in many situations due to the reliance on handcrafted features. In this paper, we propose an effective convolutional neural network (CNN) for underwater image restoration. The proposed network consists of two paralleled branches: a transmission estimation network (T-network) and a global ambient light estimation network (A-network); in particular, the T-network employs cross-layer connection and multi-scale estimation to prevent halo artifacts and to preserve edge features. The estimates produced by these two branches are leveraged to restore the clear image according to the underwater optical imaging model. Moreover, we develop a new underwater image synthesizing method for building the training datasets, which can simulate images captured in various underwater environments. Experimental results based on synthetic and real images demonstrate that our restored underwater images exhibit more natural color correction and better visibility improvement against several state-of-the-art methods.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.