Deep Learning Based Filtering Algorithm for Noise Removal in Underwater Images

Abstract

Under-water sensing and image processing play major roles in oceanic scientific studies. One of the related challenges is that the absorption and scattering of light in underwater settings degrades the quality of the imaging. The major drawbacks of underwater imaging are color distortion, low contrast, and loss of detail (especially edge information). The paper proposes a method to address these issues by de-noising and increasing the resolution of the image using a model network trained on similar data. The network extracts frames from a video and filters them with a trigonometric-Gaussian filter to eliminate the noise in the image. It then applies contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) to improvise the image contrast, and finally enhances the image resolution. Experimental results show that the proposed method could effectively produce enhanced images from degraded underwater images.