An edge-preserving filtering framework for visibility restoration

In this paper, we propose a new framework for edge-preserving texture-smoothing filtering to improve the visibility of images in presence of haze or fog. The proposed framework can effectively achieve strong texture smoothing while keeping edges sharp, and any low-pass filter can be directly integrated into the framework. Our experiments with three popular low-pass filters (Gaussian filter, median filter and bilateral filter) show that our framework can better preserve the contrast around edges than the original filters. The visibility restoration algorithm based on our framework outperforms existing filtering-based algorithm without losing the speed advantage compared to non-filtering-based algorithms. © 2012 ICPR Org Committee.