Underwater Optical Images Restoration using Hybrid Fourier-Wavelet Method

Absorption and scattering of light from water, and also in-water particles, are two main factors which impose the blurring and noise on captured images from underwater objects. In this manner, the working range of underwater optical imaging (UOI) systems is limited by these phenomena. Wavelet de-noised deconvolution and Fourier regularized deconvolution are two well-known software methods which have already been used for restoring the blurred-noisy underwater images. Nevertheless, the results of both of these software methods are very noise sensitive. Hybrid Fourier wavelet deconvolution is another image processing method which simultaneously benefits from the advantages of both wavelet de-noised deconvolution and Fourier regularized deconvolution techniques. In this paper, we propose to employ the hybrid Fourier wavelet method for underwater images restoration. Computer simulations show the superior performance of this technique to utilize in the UOI systems in comparison with the previously used wavelet de-noised deconvolution and Fourier regularized deconvolution methods.