Retinex Image Processing--Publications--IEEE Trans IP 07/1997
A Multi-scale Retinex for Bridging the Gap between
Color Images and the Human Observation of Scenes
Daniel J. Jobson, Zia-ur Rahman, and Glenn A. Woodell
IEEE Transactions on Image Processing, Vol. 6, No. 7, July 1997
Abstract
Direct observation and recorded color images of the same scenes are
often strikingly different because human visual perception computes the
conscious representation with vivid color and detail in shadows, and
with resistance to spectral shifts in the scene illuminant. A
computation for color images which approaches fidelity to scene
observation must combine dynamic range compression, color
consistency---a computational analog for human vision color
constancy---and color and lightness tonal rendition. In this paper, we
extend a previously designed single scale center/surround retinex to a
multi-scale version that achieves simultaneous dynamic range
compression/color consistency/lightness rendition. This extension fails
to produce good color rendition for a class of images that contain
violations of the gray-world assumption implicit to the theoretical
foundation of the retinex. Therefore we define a method of color
restoration that corrects for this deficiency at the cost of a modest
dilution in color consistency. Extensive testing of the multi-scale
retinex with color restoration on several test scenes and over a
hundred images did not reveal any pathological behavior.
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