Efficient single image dehazing by modifying the dark channel prior

Outdoor images can be degraded due to the particles in the air that absorb and scatter light. The produced degradation generates contrast attenuation, blurring, and distortion in pixels, resulting in low visibility. These limit the efficiency of computer vision systems such as target tracking, surveillance, and pattern recognition. In this paper, we propose a fast and effective method, through modification in the computation of the dark channel which significantly reduces the artifacts generated in the restored images presented when using the ordinary dark channel. According to our experimental results, our method produces better results than some state-of-the-art methods in both efficiency and restoration quality. The processing time in tests shows that the method is adequate for images with high-resolution and real-time video processing.