Superpixel-Based Single Nighttime Image Haze Removal

Abstract

Haze removal is important to improve performance of outdoor vision systems. However, it is challenging to remove haze from a single nighttime haze image. In this paper, a novel superpixel-based single image haze removal algorithm is proposed for nighttime haze images. The input nighttime image is first decomposed into a glow image and a glow-free nighttime haze image using their relative smoothness. A superpixel-based method is then introduced to compute the value of the atmospheric light and dark channel for each pixel in the glow-free haze image. The transmission map is decomposed from the dark channel of the glow-free haze image by the weighted guided image filter. Since superpixels usually adhere to the boundaries of objects well, a smaller local window size can be selected. As such, details in areas of fine structures are preserved better. In addition, to avoid noticeable noise in the sky area, an adaptive threshold is added to the transmission map when the nighttime haze image is restored. Experiments show that our method produces better results than the existing haze removal algorithms for nighttime haze images.