Single Image Dehazing Based on Weighted Dark Channel

Most single image dehazing methods are based on the dark channel prior. However, since the use of the dark channel prior results in halo artifacts, these conventional dehazing methods employ computationally complex post refinement processes to eliminate the halo artifacts. In this paper, we propose a single image dehazing method using a weighted dark channel that does not require any post-refinement process. Unlike the conventional dark channel obtained by selecting the minimum intensity value in the local patch, the weighted dark channel is generated by considering the color similarity and spatial distance in the local patch. Experimental results show that the proposed method does not only remove the haze effectively, but also prevent the halo artifacts.