UNDERWATER IMAGE ENHANCEMENT USING FUSION

Abstract

A method to enhance underwater images has been presented in this report. This method only utilizes the degraded image versions of a single image. It gets the inputs and weight measures only from a single test image. Both colour correction and contrast-enhancing of the original image are taken as the inputs. To increase the visibility of underwater images that are degraded by scattering and adsorption effects, weight maps are introduced which will used to enhance the image. Since this requires a single image it does not require complex hardware to capture images and does not depend on the underwater conditions. The enhanced output images have reduced noise level, improved global contrast, better illumination of the darkened regions while also maintaining a high enhancement in the fine details and edge details.