Improved Fusion-based Technique for Underwater Image Enhancement

Underwater scenarios cause the quality of images to be degraded by absorption, reflection, bending and scattering of light. This causes dominance of blue and green color in underwater images. In order to improve the visual quality of underwater images, we proposed a fusion based technique by which combines the Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization(CLAHE) and Guided filter approaches. Initially, the Contrast Limited Adaptive Histogram algorithm is applied on R, G and B components of the input image to equalize the colour contrast in images. Secondly, the Guided filter approach is applied on the result of first step to improve the colour contrast and solve the issue of lighting. Experiments indicate that the proposed technique shows promising results in terms of visual quality as well as for quantitative measures.