Fast image enhancement and three-dimensional depth calculation

Abstract

Embodiments of the present invention relate to processing of digital image data that has been generated by imaging a physical object through a medium. For example, the medium may be, the atmosphere and the atmosphere may have some inherent property, such as haze, fog, or smoke. Additionally, the medium may be media other than the atmosphere, such as, water or blood. There may be one or more media that obstructs the physical object and the medium resides at least in front of the physical object between the physical object and an imaging sensor. The physical object may be one or more physical objects that are part of a scene in a field of view (e.g. view of a mountain range, forest, cars in a parking lot etc.). An estimated transmission vector of the medium is determined based upon digital input image data. Once the transmission vector is determined, effects due to scattering can be removed from the digital input image producing a digital output image that enhances the digital input image so that further detail may be perceived. Additionally, the estimated transmission vector may be used to determine depth data for each addressable location within the image. The depth information may be used to create a three-dimensional image from a two dimensional image.

Description

priority This Patent Cooperation Treaty patent application claims priority to U.S. Patent Application No. 13 / 030,534, filed February 18, 2011, and to U.S. Continuing-in-Part Application No. 13 / 154,200, filed June 6, 2011 Right, the disclosures of these two applications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. technical field The present invention relates to image analysis, and more particularly to image enhancement by removing undesired visual defects and generating three-dimensional image data. Background technique Many color photographic images, especially those recorded outdoors by using analog or digital sensing devices, have fog that obstructs the recorded subject. This problem can also occur with false-color images or with images taken in non-air environments, as found, for example, in such diverse applications as infrared photography, X-ray photography, photomicroscopy, and underwater and space photography. So there is a need for a method that can...

AI Technical Summary

Problems solved by technology

While near real-time performance is expected, it has not been achieved by using any practical image processing computing techniques currently available

Fog is known to be represented by the Koschmieder equation; however, the solution of this equation is computationally intensive, which is too slow for real-time enhancement of still photos or video sequences

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