A multifeature fusion method for the color distortion and low contrast of underwater images

Light is scattered and absorbed when it is transmitted through seawater. Underwater images captured in water suffer from color attenuation, low contrast, and blurred details. To address these effects, we propose a multifeature fusion method (MFFM) to improve the color distortion and low contrast of underwater images. White balance technology is used to address the color cast of underwater images and obtain a color correction image. On this basis, the color correction image is enhanced by a guided filter to obtain a contrast-enhanced image. Four feature weights of the input images are calculated separately, and two normalized weight maps are constructed by normalization. To avoid a halo, the two normalized weight maps are multiscale fused. To improve the edge detail, the fused image is enhanced by a color adjustment technique to obtain the final enhanced image. Real underwater images are used for simulation and application testing. Compared with the current state-of-the-art methods, our method can balance the color and contrast and improve the visibility of underwater images. Extensive qualitative and quantitative experiments verify the superiority of the MFFM.

Automated summary

The study introduces a multi-feature fusion method (MFFM) to improve color distortion and low contrast in underwater images, using white balance technology, guided filter, and normalized weight maps. Experimental results demonstrate that the method effectively balances the color and contrast of underwater images, enhancing their visibility.