Instant Dehazing of Images Using Polarization

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.

Cite

Text

Schechner et al. "Instant Dehazing of Images Using Polarization." IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2001. doi:10.1109/CVPR.2001.990493

Markdown

[Schechner et al. "Instant Dehazing of Images Using Polarization." IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, 2001.](https://mlanthology.org/cvpr/2001/schechner2001cvpr-instant/) doi:10.1109/CVPR.2001.990493

BibTeX

@inproceedings{schechner2001cvpr-instant,
  title     = {{Instant Dehazing of Images Using Polarization}},
  author    = {Schechner, Yoav Y. and Narasimhan, Srinivasa G. and Nayar, Shree K.},
  booktitle = {IEEE/CVF Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition},
  year      = {2001},
  pages     = {I:325-332},
  doi       = {10.1109/CVPR.2001.990493},
  url       = {https://mlanthology.org/cvpr/2001/schechner2001cvpr-instant/}
}