Turbid scene enhancement using multi-directional illumination fusion

Tali Treibitz; Yoav Y. Schechner

doi:10.1109/TIP.2012.2208978

Turbid scene enhancement using multi-directional illumination fusion

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

Abstract

Ambient light is strongly attenuated in turbid media. Moreover, natural light is often more highly attenuated in some spectral bands, relative to others. Hence, imaging in turbid media often relies heavily on artificial sources for illumination. Scenes irradiated by an off-axis single point source have enhanced local object shadow edges, which may increase object visibility. However, the images may suffer from severe nonuniformity, regions of low signal (being distant from the source), and regions of strong backscatter. On the other hand, simultaneously illuminating the scene from multiple directions increases the backscatter and fills-in shadows, both of which degrade local contrast. Some previous methods tackle backscatter by scanning the scene, either temporally or spatially, requiring a large number of frames. We suggest using a few frames, in each of which wide field scene irradiance originates from a different direction. This way, shadow contrast can be maintained and backscatter can be minimized in each frame, while the sequence at large has a wider, more spatially uniform illumination. The frames are then fused by post processing to a single, clearer image. We demonstrate significant visibility enhancement underwater using as little as two frames.

Original language	English
Article number	6241430
Pages (from-to)	4662-4667
Number of pages	6
Journal	IEEE Transactions on Image Processing
Volume	21
Issue number	11
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1109/TIP.2012.2208978
State	Published - 2012
Externally published	Yes

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
Manuscript received August 3, 2011; revised June 26, 2012; accepted June 26, 2012. Date of publication July 16, 2012; date of current version October 12, 2012. This work was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation under Grant 1031/08, and was conducted in the Ollendorff Minerva Center for Vision and Image Sciences, funded through the BMBF. T. Treibitz is an Awardee of the Weizmann Institute of Science - National Postdoctoral Award Program for Advancing Women in Science and was supported in part by NSF Grant ATM-0941760. The work of Y. Schechner was supported in part by the Department of the Navy Grant N62909-10-1-4056 issued by the Office of Naval Research Global. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Prof. Wai-Kuen Cham.

Keywords

Computer vision
image recovery
modeling and recovery of physical attributes
physics-based vision
vision in scattering media

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Software
Computer Graphics and Computer-Aided Design

Access to Document

10.1109/TIP.2012.2208978

Cite this

@article{60b794f5bbb049da8d1c366a49b21f14,

title = "Turbid scene enhancement using multi-directional illumination fusion",

abstract = "Ambient light is strongly attenuated in turbid media. Moreover, natural light is often more highly attenuated in some spectral bands, relative to others. Hence, imaging in turbid media often relies heavily on artificial sources for illumination. Scenes irradiated by an off-axis single point source have enhanced local object shadow edges, which may increase object visibility. However, the images may suffer from severe nonuniformity, regions of low signal (being distant from the source), and regions of strong backscatter. On the other hand, simultaneously illuminating the scene from multiple directions increases the backscatter and fills-in shadows, both of which degrade local contrast. Some previous methods tackle backscatter by scanning the scene, either temporally or spatially, requiring a large number of frames. We suggest using a few frames, in each of which wide field scene irradiance originates from a different direction. This way, shadow contrast can be maintained and backscatter can be minimized in each frame, while the sequence at large has a wider, more spatially uniform illumination. The frames are then fused by post processing to a single, clearer image. We demonstrate significant visibility enhancement underwater using as little as two frames.",

keywords = "Computer vision, image recovery, modeling and recovery of physical attributes, physics-based vision, vision in scattering media",

author = "Tali Treibitz and Schechner, {Yoav Y.}",

note = "Funding Information: Manuscript received August 3, 2011; revised June 26, 2012; accepted June 26, 2012. Date of publication July 16, 2012; date of current version October 12, 2012. This work was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation under Grant 1031/08, and was conducted in the Ollendorff Minerva Center for Vision and Image Sciences, funded through the BMBF. T. Treibitz is an Awardee of the Weizmann Institute of Science - National Postdoctoral Award Program for Advancing Women in Science and was supported in part by NSF Grant ATM-0941760. The work of Y. Schechner was supported in part by the Department of the Navy Grant N62909-10-1-4056 issued by the Office of Naval Research Global. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Prof. Wai-Kuen Cham.",

year = "2012",

doi = "10.1109/TIP.2012.2208978",

language = "English",

volume = "21",

pages = "4662--4667",

journal = "IEEE Transactions on Image Processing",

issn = "1057-7149",

publisher = "Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Inc.",

number = "11",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - Turbid scene enhancement using multi-directional illumination fusion

AU - Treibitz, Tali

AU - Schechner, Yoav Y.

N1 - Funding Information: Manuscript received August 3, 2011; revised June 26, 2012; accepted June 26, 2012. Date of publication July 16, 2012; date of current version October 12, 2012. This work was supported in part by the Israel Science Foundation under Grant 1031/08, and was conducted in the Ollendorff Minerva Center for Vision and Image Sciences, funded through the BMBF. T. Treibitz is an Awardee of the Weizmann Institute of Science - National Postdoctoral Award Program for Advancing Women in Science and was supported in part by NSF Grant ATM-0941760. The work of Y. Schechner was supported in part by the Department of the Navy Grant N62909-10-1-4056 issued by the Office of Naval Research Global. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Prof. Wai-Kuen Cham.

PY - 2012

Y1 - 2012

N2 - Ambient light is strongly attenuated in turbid media. Moreover, natural light is often more highly attenuated in some spectral bands, relative to others. Hence, imaging in turbid media often relies heavily on artificial sources for illumination. Scenes irradiated by an off-axis single point source have enhanced local object shadow edges, which may increase object visibility. However, the images may suffer from severe nonuniformity, regions of low signal (being distant from the source), and regions of strong backscatter. On the other hand, simultaneously illuminating the scene from multiple directions increases the backscatter and fills-in shadows, both of which degrade local contrast. Some previous methods tackle backscatter by scanning the scene, either temporally or spatially, requiring a large number of frames. We suggest using a few frames, in each of which wide field scene irradiance originates from a different direction. This way, shadow contrast can be maintained and backscatter can be minimized in each frame, while the sequence at large has a wider, more spatially uniform illumination. The frames are then fused by post processing to a single, clearer image. We demonstrate significant visibility enhancement underwater using as little as two frames.

AB - Ambient light is strongly attenuated in turbid media. Moreover, natural light is often more highly attenuated in some spectral bands, relative to others. Hence, imaging in turbid media often relies heavily on artificial sources for illumination. Scenes irradiated by an off-axis single point source have enhanced local object shadow edges, which may increase object visibility. However, the images may suffer from severe nonuniformity, regions of low signal (being distant from the source), and regions of strong backscatter. On the other hand, simultaneously illuminating the scene from multiple directions increases the backscatter and fills-in shadows, both of which degrade local contrast. Some previous methods tackle backscatter by scanning the scene, either temporally or spatially, requiring a large number of frames. We suggest using a few frames, in each of which wide field scene irradiance originates from a different direction. This way, shadow contrast can be maintained and backscatter can be minimized in each frame, while the sequence at large has a wider, more spatially uniform illumination. The frames are then fused by post processing to a single, clearer image. We demonstrate significant visibility enhancement underwater using as little as two frames.

KW - Computer vision

KW - image recovery

KW - modeling and recovery of physical attributes

KW - physics-based vision

KW - vision in scattering media

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84867858600&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1109/TIP.2012.2208978

DO - 10.1109/TIP.2012.2208978

M3 - Article

C2 - 22829404

AN - SCOPUS:84867858600

SN - 1057-7149

VL - 21

SP - 4662

EP - 4667

JO - IEEE Transactions on Image Processing

JF - IEEE Transactions on Image Processing

IS - 11

M1 - 6241430

ER -

Turbid scene enhancement using multi-directional illumination fusion

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Keywords

ASJC Scopus subject areas

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this