Skip to main content
Go to the home page of the European Commission (opens in new window)
English English
CORDIS - EU research results
CORDIS

Dataset and dehazing methods for non-homogeneous and dense hazy scenes

Project description

An improved method of removing haze from images

Under bad weather conditions such as haze, the quality of images degrades severely due to the presence of floating particles in the air that scatter light. Objects are therefore difficult to be identified either by human vision or computer vision systems. Existing haze removal (dehazing) techniques perform poorly when it comes to dense homogeneous hazy scenes. The EU-funded NH-DEHAZE project will develop dehazing techniques that do not assume homogeneous distribution of light and haze. It will build up the first image dataset that includes pairs of real scenes, hazy as well as clear. Deep neural networks will then be trained to derive clear images out of the hazy ones.

Objective

In presence of haze, small floating particles absorb and scatter the light from its propagation direction. This results in selective and significant attenuation of the light spectrum, and causes hazy scenes to be subject to a loss of contrast and sharpness for distant objects. Besides, most computer vision and image processing algorithms (e.g. from feature extraction to objects/scene detection and recognition) usually assume that the input image is the scene radiance (haze-free image), and therefore strongly suffer from the color-shift, and low-contrast induced by hazy conditions. For instance, in normal visibility conditions the Traffic Sign Detection and Recognition (TSDR) module of the existing ADAS systems reaches a detection rate averaging around 90%, but drops below 40% in case of haze or poor illumination conditions1. Therefore, many recent works have explored inverse problem formulations and have designed dedicated image enhancement methods to address the dehazing problem. However, to estimate their key internal parameters (e.g. airlight in Koschmieders light transmission model), most of those solutions assume homogeneous distribution of light and haze, which is rarely the case in practice (e.g. lighting is non-uniform in space and frequency during the night, attenuation caused by haze depends on the light frequency).

Image dehazing thus remains a largely unsolved problem in case of dense and non-homogeneous haze scenes.

As a federating objective, our project aims at implementing dehazing methods that are suited to dense and non-homogeneous hazy scenes. This implies the following tasks:
(O1) build up the first (world-wide) image dataset including pairs of hazy and haze-free scenes, for which hazy scenes include real, dense, and non-homogeneous haze;
(O2) develop and train deep dehazing neural networks to derive the dehazed images from hazy inputs.
(O3) train deep image interpretation models that are suited to images captured in adverse conditions.

Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)

CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.

You need to log in or register to use this function

Keywords

Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)

Programme(s)

Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.

Topic(s)

Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.

Funding Scheme

Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.

MSCA-IF - Marie Skłodowska-Curie Individual Fellowships (IF)

See all projects funded under this funding scheme

Call for proposal

Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.

(opens in new window) H2020-MSCA-IF-2019

See all projects funded under this call

Coordinator

UNIVERSITE CATHOLIQUE DE LOUVAIN
Net EU contribution

Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.

€ 178 320,00
Address
PLACE DE L UNIVERSITE 1
1348 LOUVAIN LA NEUVE
Belgium

See on map

Region
Région wallonne Prov. Brabant Wallon Arr. Nivelles
Activity type
Higher or Secondary Education Establishments
Links
Total cost

The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.

€ 178 320,00
My booklet 0 0