Estimation-based approach for underwater image restoration

For underwater image restoration, modeling of PSF relies on a priori knowledge of the inherent optical properties under water. But full knowledge-based restoration could be corrupted by the complexity and instability of the application environments. Concerned with representation of the backscattering noise of underwater image, this Letter proposes a simplified multilayer transfer model to formulate both the point spread function and the statistics of backscattering noise explicitly. Consequently, the parameters for image restoration are estimated from in situ measurement of the backscattering background without a priori knowledge of the inherent optical properties. The robust Wiener filter is applied to implement the restoration. Experimental results are presented.