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An enhanced multi-scale weight assignment strategy of two-exposure fusion

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Abstract

Multi-exposure image fusion (MEF) is a convenient way to get high dynamic range (HDR) images. However, when the input sequence with a large difference in exposure time, the existing MEF algorithms cannot well reconstruct relative contrast, resulting in loss of detail in underexposed or overexposed region. In order to get the details from the images as much as possible, an enhanced multi-scale weight assignment strategy is proposed in this paper. First, the input image guided by itself is decomposed into the first level with base layer (BL) and detail layer (DL) using guided filtering. Then, this BL continues to be decomposed into the second level like the first level. With the going of decomposition, the image can be decomposed into several DLs and 1 BL. Afterward, the image information contained in BLs and DLs is extracted by using the exposure weights and the global gradient weights to reconstruct the fused image, respectively. Finally, 39 sets of two-exposure image sequences are selected and compared with nine representative algorithms. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm has good visual performance in subjective evaluation and state-of-the-art performance in objective evaluation.

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Data Availability

The datasets analyzed during the current study are available in the [MEFB] repository, [https://github.com/xingchenzhang/MEFB]. All data included in this study are available upon request by contact with the corresponding author.

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by Fundamental Research Funds for the Central Universities (No. 3072022QBZ0803), the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation (No. 2018M631911), and the Heilongjiang Postdoctoral Foundation, China (No. LBH-Z18055).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Information and Communication Engineering, Harbin Engineering University, Nantong ST, Harbin, 150001, Heilongjiang, China

    Yingsong Li, Zhen Yang, Junwei Qi & Jingpeng Gao

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  1. Yingsong Li
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  2. Zhen Yang
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  3. Junwei Qi
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  4. Jingpeng Gao
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Correspondence to Junwei Qi.

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Li, Y., Yang, Z., Qi, J. et al. An enhanced multi-scale weight assignment strategy of two-exposure fusion. Vis Comput 40, 8603–8614 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00371-023-03258-2

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