Analysis and extensions of the Frankle-McCann Retinex algorithm

We present our analysis of the Frankle-McCann Retinex algorithm and propose extensions that result in a better rendition of the image. These extensions suppress artifacts and reduce the number of iterations required to get to the final image. In addition, our investigation suggests that the Retinex algorithm can be viewed as a process of estimating the per-pixel gains necessary to achieve dynamic range compression in the original image. Experimental results are provided that demonstrate the efficacy of this approach as compared to using Retinex to generate the final image. (C) 2004 SPIE and IST.