Hierarchical Image Quality Improvement Based on Illumination, Resolution, and Noise Factors for Improving Object Detection

Abstract

Object detection performance is significantly impacted by image quality factors such as illumination, resolution, and noise. This paper proposes a hierarchical image quality improvement process that dynamically prioritizes these factors based on severity, enhancing detection accuracy in diverse conditions. The process evaluates each factor—illumination, resolution, and noise—using discriminators that analyze brightness, edge strength, and noise levels. Improvements are applied iteratively with an adaptive weight update mechanism that adjusts factor importance based on improvement effectiveness. Following each improvement, a quality assessment is conducted, updating weights to fine-tune subsequent adjustments. This allows the process to learn optimal parameters for varying conditions, enhancing adaptability. The image improved through the proposed process shows improved quality through quality index (PSNR, SSIM) evaluation, and the object detection accuracy is significantly improved when the performance is measured using deep learning models called YOLOv8 and RT-DETR. The detection rate is improved by 7% for the ‘Bottle’ object in a high-light environment, and by 4% and 2.5% for the ‘Bicycle’ and ‘Car’ objects in a low-light environment, respectively. Additionally, segmentation accuracy saw a 9.45% gain, supporting the effectiveness of this method in real-world applications.