Underwater Image Enhancement Using an Integrated Colour Model

TLDR

Underwater images suffer from light absorption and scattering, causing color dominance and reduced clarity. The authors propose a slide‑stretching approach to improve underwater image perception, aiming to enhance visual quality. The method applies RGB contrast stretching to equalize color contrast and HSI saturation/intensity stretching to restore true color, implemented in interactive software. The software produces enhanced underwater images, as demonstrated by the results presented in the paper.

Abstract

In underwater situations, clarity of images are degraded by light absorption and scattering. This causes one colour to dominate the image. In order to improve the perception of underwater images, we proposed an approach based on slide stretching. The objective of this approach is twofold. Firstly, the contrast stretching of RGB algorithm is applied to equalize the colour contrast in images. Secondly, the saturation and intensity stretching of HSI is used to increase the true colour and solve the problem of lighting. Interactive software has been developed for underwater image enhancement. Results of the software are presented in this paper.