A new end-to-end image dehazing algorithm based on residual attention mechanism

Traditional image dehazing algorithms based on prior knowledge and deep learning rely on the atmospheric scattering model and are easy to cause color distortion and incomplete dehazing. To solve these problems, an end-to-end image dehazing algorithm based on residual attention mechanism is proposed in this paper. The network includes four modules: encoder, multi-scale feature extraction, feature fusion and decoder. The encoder module encodes the input haze image into feature map, which is convenient for subsequent feature extraction and reduces memory consumption; the multi-scale feature extraction module includes residual smoothed dilated convolution module, residual block and efficient channel attention, which can expand the receptive field and extract different scale features by filtering and weighting; the feature fusion module with efficient channel attention adjusts the channel weight dynamically, acquires rich context information and suppresses redundant information so as to enhance the ability to extract haze density image of the network; finally, the encoder module maps the fused feature nonlinearly to obtain the haze density image and then restores the haze free image. The qualitative and quantitative tests based on SOTS test set and natural haze images show good objective and subjective evaluation results. This algorithm improves the problems of color distortion and incomplete dehazing effectively. © 2021 Journal of Northwestern Polytechnical University.