Combining gray world and retinex theory for automatic white balance in digital photography

Abstract

White balancing is an important step in the digital camera processing pipeline to adjust the color of the pixels under different illuminations. Efficient automatic white balance is usually a required component of a consumer digital camera because many users would not prefer to handle this task manually. Gray world assumption and retinex theory are two common methods used, but their aims vary and their applicability depends on the nature of the images. In this paper, we present an effective technique that combines the two together, while preserving the strength of the two methods. Experimental results confirm that our approach is a viable alternative to the two existing methods.