Image haze removal using a hybrid of fuzzy inference system and weighted estimation

Abstract

The attenuation of the light transmitted through air can reduce image quality when taking a photograph outdoors, especially in a hazy environment. Hazy images often lack sufficient information for image recognition systems to operate effectively. In order to solve the aforementioned problems, this study proposes a hybrid method combining fuzzy theory with weighted estimation for the removal of haze from images. A transmission map is first created based on fuzzy theory. According to the transmission map, the proposed method automatically finds the possible atmospheric lights and refines the atmospheric lights by mixing these candidates. Weighted estimation is then employed to generate a refined transmission map, which removes the halo artifact from around the sharp edges. Experimental results demonstrate the superiority of the proposed method over existing methods with regard to contrast, color depth, and the elimination of halo artifacts.

A hybrid of fuzzy theory and quadratic function for estimating and refining transmission map

“…Recently, dehazing using a single image [13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21] has been widely adopted to overcome the problem of multiple images. Fattal [13] assumed that transmission and surface colors are not correlated.…”

“…Wei et al [20] used linear transformation to estimate the transmission map as well as to avoid the halo and color oversaturation problems. Wang et al [21] proposed a fuzzy system to estimate the transmission map and used the weight ratio between the value of one pixel and the value of patch pixels to suppress the halo problem.…”

“…In the methods described in [4,[13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21], the color oversaturation problem is encountered. Therefore, in the present study, the focus is on single-image dehazing while solving the halo and color oversaturation problems.…”

Novel Defogging Algorithm Based on the Joint Use of Saturation and Color Attenuation Prior

“…By the influence of these particulate suspensions and the atmosphere interference, outdoor images captured by imaging equipment appear with contrast decreasing and degradation of color fidelity. The process of defogging is to restore a clear image from foggy image, and pads foundation for the follow-up advanced image analysis including identification, classification and tracking [1], [2].…”

Variational Histogram Equalization for Single Color Image Defogging

“…This kind of degradation undoubtedly makes a great discount on the effectiveness of those applications. Therefore, the technique of removing foggy image degradation, namely, "image defogging," has attracted much attention in the image processing field [1][2][3].…”