Retinex Image Processing--Publications--SPIE 5802, Orlando, Florida
Conference
Real-time Enhanced Vision System
Glenn Hines, Zia-ur Rahman, Daniel J. Jobson, and Glenn A. Woodell
Abstract
Flying in poor visibility conditions, such as rain, snow, fog or haze, is inherently
dangerous. However these conditions can occur at nearly any location, so inevitably
pilots must successfully navigate through them. At NASA Langley Research Center
(LaRC), under support of the Aviation Safety and Security Program Office and the
Systems Engineering Directorate, we are developing an Enhanced Vision System (EVS)
that combines image enhancement and synthetic vision elements to assist pilots
flying through adverse weather conditions. This system uses a combination of
forward-looking infrared and visible sensors for data acquisition. A core function
of the system is to enhance and fuse the sensor data in order to increase the
information content and quality of the captured imagery. These operations must be
performed in real-time for the pilot to use while flying. For image enhancement,
we are using the LaRC patented Retinex algorithm since it performs exceptionally
well for improving low-contrast range imagery typically seen during poor visibility
poor visibility conditions. In general, real-time operation of the Retinex requires
specialized hardware. To date, we have successfully implemented a single-sensor
real-time version of the Retinex on several different Digital Signal Processor (DSP)
platforms. In this paper we give an overview of the EVS and its performance
requirements for real-time enhancement and fusion and we discuss our current
real-time Retinex implementations on DSPs.
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