Haze removal from single images based on a luminance reference model

Optical transmission estimation is a key procedure for removing haze from certain outdoor images. In this paper, we propose a novel transmission estimation model called the luminance reference model. A luminance reference, which is the intensity lower bound of a local region in the haze free image, is assumed to be a global constant across the image. Based on this assumption, we theoretically prove that, with an appropriate luminance reference, the transmission can be estimated accurately. By using a scene-dependent estimate of the luminance reference, our method can be applied to different types of images. We further propose a two-step guided approach to rapid and robust computation of a transmission map. Our experimental results show that the proposed method is computationally efficient, while producing comparable visual results to the existing state-of-the-art, but more complex methods.