Underwater image sharpening based on structure restoration and texture enhancement

Light can be absorbed and scattered when traveling through water, which results in underwater optical images suffering from blurring and color distortion. To improve the visual quality of underwater optical images, we propose a novel, to the best of our knowledge, image sharpening method. We utilize the relative total variation model to decompose images into structure and texture layers in a novel manner. On those two layers, the red-blue dark channel prior (RBDCP) and detail lifting algorithms are proposed, respectively. The RBDCP model calculates background light based on brightness, gradient discrimination, and hue judgment, which then generates transmission maps using red-blue channel attenuation characteristics. The linear combination of the Gaussian kernel and binary mask is employed in the proposed detail lifting algorithm. Furthermore, we combine the layers of restoration structure and enhancement texture for image sharpening, inspired by the concept of fusion. Our methodology has rich texture information and is effective in color correction and atomization removal through RBDCP. Extensive experimental results indicate that the proposed method effectively balances image hue, saturation, and clarity. (C) 2021 Optical Society of America