High-speed Processing for Image Quality Improvement System based on the Retinex and Its Evaluations

Abstract

Captured images with a digital camera are sometimes different from the appearance of the human vision. The Retinex model is a well known algorithm for image quality improvement with considering visual characteristics. The Retinex can reproduce an image by removing the influence of the scene illuminant. However, the complicated processing is required to reproduce an appropriate image. In this paper, at first, we construct a high-speed system for image quality improvement by devising both the improvement of the Retinex algorithm and the implementation of hardware. Next, we show that the proposed system can reproduce almost the same quality images as conventional MSR's by subjective evaluations. Then, we also show that the calculation time of the proposed system is greatly improved. Finally, the display method and the display size of the improvement region for concerning convenience are examined by subjective evaluations.