A novel underwater image enhancement approach with wavelet transform supported by differential evolution algorithm

Abstract

In this paper, a novel underwater image enhancement approach was proposed. This approach includes use of a method formed by the wavelet transform and the differential evolution algorithm. In the method, the contrast adjustment function was applied to the original underwater image first. Then, the homomorphic filtering technique was used to normalize the brightness in the image. After these steps, the underwater image was separated into its R, G, and B components. Then wavelet transform function was performed on each of the R, G, and B channels with Haar wavelet decomposition. Thus, detailed images were obtained for each of the color channels by wavelet transform low-pass approximation (cA), horizontal (cH), vertical (cV) and diagonal (cD) coefficients. Four parameters of weights (w) of each component cA, cH, cV, and cD situated in the R, G, and B color channels were optimized using differential evolution algorithm. In the proposed method, differential evolution algorithm was employed to find the optimum w parameters for Entropy and PSNR in separate approaches. Finally, unsharp mask filter was used to enhance the edges in the image. As an evaluation approach, performance of the proposed method was tested by using the criteria of entropy, PSNR, and MSE. The obtained results showed that the effectiveness of the proposed method was better than the existing techniques. Likewise, the visual quality of the image was also improved more thanks to the proposed method.