A Single Image Dehazing Technique Using the Dual Transmission Maps Strategy and Gradient-Domain Guided Image Filtering

In this paper, a single image dehazing technique using dual transmission maps strategy and gradient-domain guided image filtering is presented. A new strategy is adopted to compute the dual transmission maps using the dark channel and atmospheric light. Further, the transmission maps are refined to remove any remaining ill effects using the gradient-domain-guided filter. Finally, using the dark channel, atmospheric light, and refined transmission map, the haze-free image is obtained. The dual transmission maps strategy not only removes halo artifacts and reduces the saturation but also ensures the natural appearance in the recovered images. Furthermore, the proposed scheme is evaluated using a wide range of images and compared with state-of-the-art schemes. The comparison shows the superiority of the proposed technique in terms of recovering haze-free images.