Visibility improvement in turbid water by the fusion technology of Mueller matrix images

The underwater visibility is limited because of the particle scattering and absorption. As a promising technology, Mueller matrix imaging can effectively improve image quality and reveal additional information about the target. In this study, a method using the fusion of Mueller matrix images to enhance underwater degraded images is presented. Every Mueller matrix element image is given a weight and then fused to create a new image. The optimal weight is obtained by searching values that maximize the quality of the image. It is proved that our method is effective by comparing with the Mueller matrix images and state-of-the-art methods employing subjective and objective analysis. Under the same condition, we only need to search the weight once and then images of other objects can be enhanced by the same weight. At the same time, one can use simulated weight to enhance the image. The proposed method can let the enhanced image have some information that the normal method does not have because of the property of the Mueller matrix. The underwater viewing distance and image quality can be improved.