Clear underwater vision

Underwater imaging is important for scientific research and technology, as well as for popular activities. We present a computer vision approach which easily removes degradation effects in underwater vision. We analyze the physical effects of visibility degradation. We show that the main degradation effects can be associated with partial polarization of light. We therefore present an algorithm which inverts the image formation process, to recover a good visibility image of the object. The algorithm is based on a couple of images taken through a polarizer at different orientations. As a by product, a distance map of the scene is derived as well. We successfully used our approach when experimenting in the sea using a system we built. We obtained great improvement of scene contrast and color correction, and nearly doubled the underwater visibility range.

[1]  Thomas S. Huang,et al.  Image processing , 1971 .

[2]  B. L. McGlamery,et al.  A Computer Model For Underwater Camera Systems , 1980, Other Conferences.

[3]  D. Stork,et al.  Polarized light in nature , 1985 .

[4]  Jules S. Jaffe,et al.  Computer modeling and the design of optimal underwater imaging systems , 1990 .

[5]  K. Voss.  Simple empirical model of the oceanic point spread function. , 1991, Applied optics.

[6]  C. Mobley.  Light and Water: Radiative Transfer in Natural Waters , 1994 .

[7]  N. Engheta,et al.  Polarization-difference imaging: a biologically inspired technique for observation through scattering media. , 1995, Optics letters.

[8]  D. Varjú,et al.  Underwater refraction-polarization patterns of skylight perceived by aquatic animals through Snell's window of the flat water surface , 1995, Vision Research.

[9]  Lawrence B. Wolff,et al.  Polarization vision: a new sensory approach to image understanding , 1997, Image Vis. Comput..

[10]  Fabio Gagliardi Cozman,et al.  Depth from scattering , 1997, Proceedings of IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

[11]  S. Morgan,et al.  Effects of polarization state and scatterer concentration on optical imaging through scattering media. , 1997, Applied optics.

[12]  John P. Oakley,et al.  Improving image quality in poor visibility conditions using a physical model for contrast degradation , 1998, IEEE Trans. Image Process..

[13]  K. Ikeuchi,et al.  Measurement of surface orientations of transparent objects by use of polarization in highlight , 1999 .

[14]  Boris Kaminsky,et al.  AOTF polarization difference imaging , 1999, Other Conferences.

[15]  Rainer Reuter,et al.  Contrast-enhanced optical imaging of submersible targets , 1999, Industrial Lasers and Inspection.

[16]  Shahriar Negahdaripour,et al.  Automatic optical station keeping and navigation of an ROV; sea trial experiments , 1999, Oceans '99. MTS/IEEE. Riding the Crest into the 21st Century. Conference and Exhibition. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.99CH37008).

[17]  Edward H. Adelson,et al.  Separating reflections and lighting using independent components analysis , 1999, Proceedings. 1999 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (Cat. No PR00149).

[18]  Katsushi Ikeuchi,et al.  Measurement of surface orientations of transparent objects using polarization in highlight , 1999, Proceedings. 1999 IEEE Computer Society Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (Cat. No PR00149).

[19]  R. Henry,et al.  Color perception through atmospheric haze. , 2000, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[20]  J Shamir,et al.  Polarization and statistical analysis of scenes containing a semireflector. , 2000, Journal of the Optical Society of America. A, Optics, image science, and vision.

[21]  Terry Boult,et al.  DOVE: Dolphin Omni-directional Video Equipment , 2000 .

[22]  J. S. Taylor,et al.  Partial polarization signature results from the field testing of the SHallow water Real-time IMaging polarimeter (SHRIMP) , 2001, MTS/IEEE Oceans 2001. An Ocean Odyssey. Conference Proceedings (IEEE Cat. No.01CH37295).

[23]  Gian Luca Foresti,et al.  Visual inspection of sea bottom structures by an autonomous underwater vehicle , 2001, IEEE Trans. Syst. Man Cybern. Part B.

[24]  R. Wehner.  Polarization vision--a uniform sensory capacity? , 2001, The Journal of experimental biology.

[25]  T. Cronin,et al.  The linearly polarized light field in clear, tropical marine waters: spatial and temporal variation of light intensity, degree of polarization and e-vector angle. , 2001, The Journal of experimental biology.

[26]  Yaacov Kahanov,et al.  Analysis of hull remains of the Dor D Vessel, Tantura Lagoon, Israel , 2001 .

[27]  Jean-Marc Lavest,et al.  Multi-view reconstruction combining underwater and air sensors , 2002, Proceedings. International Conference on Image Processing.

[28]  P. C. Chang,et al.  Improving visibility depth in passive underwater imaging by use of polarization. , 2003, Applied optics.

[29]  Julia Åhlén,et al.  Bottom Reflectance Influence on a Color Correction Algorithm for Underwater Images , 2003, SCIA.

[30]  Alexander G. Cheroske,et al.  Polarization Vision and Its Role in Biological Signaling1 , 2003, Integrative and comparative biology.

[31]  Shree K. Nayar,et al.  Contrast Restoration of Weather Degraded Images , 2003, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach. Intell..

[32]  Yoav Y. Schechner,et al.  Portable polarimetric underwater imaging system with a linear response , 2004, SPIE Defense + Commercial Sensing.

[33]  Marc Levoy,et al.  Synthetic aperture confocal imaging , 2004, SIGGRAPH 2004.

[34]  Shree K. Nayar,et al.  Separation of Reflection Components Using Color and Polarization , 1997, International Journal of Computer Vision.