Novel Tone Mapping Method via Macro-Micro Modeling of Human Visual System

Tone mapping(TM) aims to adapt high dynamic range (HDR) images to conventional displays with visual information preserved. In this paper, a novel TM method based on macro-micro modeling is proposed, which can address the common problems in existing TM methods, such as exposure imbalance and halo artifact. From a microscopic perspective, multi-layer decomposition and reconstruction are applied to model the properties of brightness, structure, and detail for HDR images, and then different strategies are adopted for each layer by the human visual system (HVS) to reduce the overall brightness contrast and retain as much scene information. From a macroscopic perspective, scene content-based global operator is designed to adaptively adjust the scene brightness so that it is consistent with the subjective perception of human eyes. Both the micro and macro models are processed in parallel, which can ensure the integrity and subjective consistency of scene information. Experiments with numerous HDR images and TM methods are conducted and the results show that the proposed method achieves visually compelling results with little exposure imbalance and halo artifact, and is superior to the current state-of-the-art TM methods in both subjective and objective evaluations.