Abstract

We present an approach to easily remove the effects of haze from images. It is based on the fact that usually airlight scattered by atmospheric particles is partially polarized. Polarization filtering alone cannot remove the haze effects, except in restricted situations. Our method, however, works under a wide range of atmospheric and viewing conditions. We analyze the image formation process, taking into account polarization effects of atmospheric scattering. We then invert the process to enable the removal of haze from images. The method can be used with as few as two images taken through a polarizer at different orientations. This method works instantly, without relying on changes of weather conditions. We present experimental results of complete dehazing in far from ideal conditions for polarization filtering. We obtain a great improvement of scene contrast and correction of color. As a by product, the method also yields a range (depth) map of the scene, and information about properties of the atmospheric particles.

Keywords

HazePolarization (electrochemistry)PolarizerComputer scienceComputer visionArtificial intelligenceInstantScatteringDiffuse sky radiationAtmospheric modelRemote sensingOpticsPhysicsGeologyMeteorologyChemistry

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Publication Info

Year
2005
Type
article
Volume
1
Pages
I-325
Citations
843
Access
Closed

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843
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19
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544
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Cite This

Yoav Y. Schechner, Srinivasa G. Narasimhan, Shree K. Nayar (2005). Instant dehazing of images using polarization. Proceedings of the 2001 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. CVPR 2001 , 1 , I-325. https://doi.org/10.1109/cvpr.2001.990493

Identifiers

DOI
10.1109/cvpr.2001.990493

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Data completeness: 86%