Lights off the Image: Highlight Suppression for Single Texture-Rich Images in Optical Inspection Based on Wavelet Transform and Fusion Strategy

Abstract

A wavelet-transform-based highlight suppression method is presented, aiming at suppressing the highlights of single image with complex texture. The strategy involves the rough extraction of specular information, followed by extracting the high-frequency information in specular information based on multi-level wavelet transform to enhance the texture information in the original images by fusion strategy, and fusing with the same-level specular information to achieve the highlight suppression image. The experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method effectively removed large-area highlights while preserving texture details, and demonstrated the authenticity of the highlight estimation and the ‘lights off’ effect in the highlight-suppressed images. Overall, the method offers a feasibility for addressing the challenges of highlight suppression for visual detection image with rich texture and large-area highlights.