Images associated with underwater imaging systems are normally degraded by the intervening water medium. The
imaging instrument records not only the signal of interest, i.e., the radiance diffusely reflected from underwater target,
but also the radiance scattered into the field of view by water molecule and particulates. In order to improve the system
performance, range gated underwater imaging system is used to enhance image quality and visibility in turbid conditions.
Range gated imaging utilizes time discrimination to improve signal-to-backscattering noise ratio by rejecting
backscattered light from the medium. The range gated underwater imaging system basically consists of a pulsed laser
system, a control and synchronous logics and a high-speed gated camera. Because a laser is a highly coherent light
source, speckle noise results from the randomly constructive or destructive interference of the scattered light rays will
appear in the images obtained from the range gated underwater imaging system. The random granular speckle noise
brings great difficulty for the image processing. So the formation causes of speckle noise are discussed and several
different material objects under standard light source and laser are chosen to carry out speckle noise comparative
analysis. And a multidirectional morphological filtering algorithm for reducing speckle noise is proposed by using the
characteristics of morphology's multi-resolution analysis and fast-computing. In order to evaluate the method
objectively, equivalent number and speckle index are introduced. The experimental results demonstrate that the approach
that is adopted not only can reduce the speckle noise of the image effectively but also can preserve the feature detail
efficiently.
Range gated underwater laser imaging technique can eliminate backscattering noise effectively. While the images
associated with underwater imaging systems are normally degraded seriously by the intervening water medium. And the
speckle noise is especially severe for the reason that we adopt the system based on intensified gate imaging technology.
Well known causes of image degradation underwater include turbidity, particulate matters in the water column, and the
interaction between light and medium as light travels through water. Consequently, using full image formation models to
design restoration algorithms is more complex in water than in air because it's hard to get the values of the model
parameters relating to water properties, e.g., attenuation and scattering coefficients. To improve the quality of the low
signal-to-noise ratio images obtained through range gated laser imaging system, an enhancement algorithm is proposed.
The main purpose of the algorithm proposed for processing underwater images is to filter out unwanted noises and
remain desired signals. This algorithm is based on the principle of the least square error method, which fits discrete
image data to continuous piecewise curves. To simply the fitting of image data, the interval of each row and column is
subdivided into several subintervals. Then a curve is used to fit the image data within the subinterval. To merge two
adjacent lines together, a weighting technique with a linear weighting factor is imposed. A series of experiments are
carried out to study the effects of the algorithm. And the signal-to-noise ratio shows that the proposed algorithm can
achieve high quality enhancement images.
Range-gated underwater laser imaging technique can eliminate most of the backscattering and absorption noise
effectively. It has a range of from 4 to 6 times that of a conventional camera with floodlights in the strongly scattering
waters, which becomes a useful technique in oceanic research, deep-sea exploration, underwater remote control and
robotic works. While because of the laser pulse stretching, the image obtained through range gated underwater imaging
system has obvious nonuniformly illuminated character, such as brighter center and darker edge. Low contrast and
grayish white of the image also bring great difficulty for processing. In order to adjust the lightness of the nonuniformly
illuminated image of range-gated underwater imaging system, the water degradation is assumed as illumination variation
and retinal-cortex theory based on color constancy is introduced. Frame integral algorithm has to be applied first to
eliminate system noise for the reason that we adopt the system based on intensified gate imaging technology. And gray
stretch ensures that we can attain appropriate output. In retinal-cortex models, McCann model and McCann-Frankle
model have obvious effect. So we choose the two models for comparison and improve the second one considering the
exponential characteristics of eyes for illumination. In order to evaluate the methods objectively, strength uniformity of
signals is applied. The experimental results demonstrate that the approaches we adopted are all effective and can enhance
the image contrast. And the improved McCann-Frankle model gets more satisfying visual effect.
Access to the requested content is limited to institutions that have purchased or subscribe to SPIE eBooks.
You are receiving this notice because your organization may not have SPIE eBooks access.*
*Shibboleth/Open Athens users─please
sign in
to access your institution's subscriptions.
To obtain this item, you may purchase the complete book in print or electronic format on
SPIE.org.
INSTITUTIONAL Select your institution to access the SPIE Digital Library.
PERSONAL Sign in with your SPIE account to access your personal subscriptions or to use specific features such as save to my library, sign up for alerts, save searches, etc.