Method for enhancing visibility of hazy images based on polarimetric imaging

• DOI: 10.1364/prj.2.000038
• Publication Date: 2014-02-03T20:11:57Z
• Authors: Jian Liang; Liyong Ren; Enshi Qu; Bingliang Hu; Yingli Wang
• Keywords: 13. Climate action; 0103 physical sciences; 0202 electrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineering; 02 engineering and technology; 01 natural sciences

A novel polarimetric dehazing method is proposed based on three linear polarization images (0°, 45°, and 90°). The polarization orientation angle of the light scattered by the haze particles is introduced in the algorithm. No additional image-processing algorithm is needed in the postprocessing. It is found that the dehazed image suffers from little noise and the details of the objects close to the observer can be preserved well. In addition, this algorithm is also proved to be useful for preserving image colors. Experimental results demonstrate that such an algorithm has some universality in handling all kinds of haze. We think that this robust algorithm might be very suitable for real-time dehazing.