Traffic Sign Image Enhancement in Low Light Environment

Abstract In order to improve the contrast and sharpness of traffic sign images obtained under low light natural environment, we propose an improved enhancement method based on discrete wavelet transform to improve image contrast. We convert the original RGB image to the HSV color space, and use the discrete wavelet transform (DWT) to decompose the luminance component (V). In the low-frequency component use multi-scale Retinex algorithm estimate the illuminance to enhance the contrast of images, the high-frequency component enhances the detail information through the multi-scale detail boosting method. Finally, adjust the saturation component (S) by a piecewise exponential transformation method to make the image color more suitable for human observation. Experimental results demonstrate that our method can better display image details while reducing the halo effect, and effectively improve the contrast and sharpness of low-light images compared with existing algorithms through subjective and objective analysis.