Channel splitting attention network for low‐light image enhancement

Abstract

Low-light enhancement is a crucial task in computer vision because of the limited dynamic range of digital imaging devices in poor lighting conditions. Images taken under low-light conditions often suffer from insufficient brightness and severe noise. At present, many models based on convolutional neural networks have been proposed to enhance low-light images. However, most models treat the features on different channels equally, which is not conducive to models learning hierarchical features. Consequently, the method proposed a channel splitting attention network (CSAN) that divides the shallow features into two branches, the residual and dense branches, transmitting different information. Residual branching facilitates feature reuse, while dense branching promotes the exploration of new features. In addition, CSAN uses merge-and-run mappings to assist information integration between different branches and distinguishes the information contained in different branch features through an attention module designed in this paper. Multiple experiment results show that the method proposed is superior to state-of-the-art methods in qualitative and quantitative evaluation. Furthermore, CSAN can better suppress chromaticity aberration while enhancing low-light images.