Polarization-Based Dehazing Using Two Reference Objects

Daisuke Miyazaki, Daisuke Akiyama, Masashi Baba, Ryo Furukawa, Shinsaku Hiura, Naoki Asada; Proceedings of the IEEE International Conference on Computer Vision (ICCV) Workshops, 2013, pp. 852-859

We propose a polarization-based method to enhance the visibility of an image by canceling the haze effect. Haze is a natural phenomenon that degrades the visibility of a scene. Aerosols in air reflect sunlight and cause polarization. Therefore, we analyze the polarization state of the observed light to remove the haze effect from a captured image. Our approach is to use two reference objects that are known a priori in estimating the parameters of the haze effect. Once the parameters are known, we can improve the image so that the scene is clearly visible. We also present an experimental result using a commercial polarization camera, which can obtain the polarization state of the scene.