Improved edge-preserving decomposition based on single image dehazing

Abstract

Haze is a common phenomenon often produced during bad weather that obscure scenes, reduces visibility, and degrades colors. Haze removal poses a serious challenge because of the difficulty to develop an exact mathematical model when a single hazy image is given as the input. In this paper, we propose a single image haze removal method to highlight the edges. A edge-aware constraint weighting scheme based on first-order derivative from Gradient domain Guided Image filter is adopted in this algorithm which helps to preserve the edges better. In this dehazing algorithm, simplified dark channel of the haze image can be separated as base layer and detail layer by applying a filter, i.e., weighted guided image filter. The transmission map is obtained from the base layer and thereby it is utilized to restore haze-free image. Result analysis show that the proposed algorithm preserves and highlights the edges without any color distortion. Experimental results are performed on natural haze images, aerial images, and under water images. In qualitative analysis, edge map shows the better performance of the proposed method. Quantitative Analysis have been carried out which demonstrates the better performance of the proposed algorithm when compared with the existing method.