Attenuating Natural Flicker Patterns Yoav Y. Schechner Nir Karpel Dept. Elect. Eng. Technion – Israel Institute of Technology Support: Taub Foundation, Ollendorff Foundation (BMBF), ISF Ack: Yoav Fhiler, Naftali Blau, Nir Geva
Spatio-Temporal Illumination Patterns • Spatially nonuniform illumination • Temporally varying illuminaton • May disrupt computer-vision Y. Schechner & N. Karpel, Attenuating flicker
Spatio-Temporal Patterns Spatiotemporal pattern = Caustic networks = Flicker Y. Schechner & N. Karpel, Attenuating flicker
Dependency on Depth: Normalized-Amplitude strong flicker at shallow depths strong flicker when very deep Walker 1994 Marine Light Field Statistics Y. Schechner & N. Karpel, Attenuating flicker
Dependency on Depth: Temporal Frequency w max ~ 1 z z Walker 1994 Marine Light Field Statistics Y. Schechner & N. Karpel, Attenuating flicker
Intensity Broadband Temporal Spectrum Walker 1994 Marine Light Field Statistics w 1 Hz 2 Hz 3 Hz w max Conclusion: Need seconds to average out flicker
What Do We Want? 1 z we need seconds to average out flicker but for video… we want O(0. 1 sec) linear method to eliminate flicker nonlinear method Y. Schechner & N. Karpel, Attenuating flicker
Failure of Trivial Methods Raw frames Y. Schechner & N. Karpel, Attenuating flicker
Shadow Removal in Open Air Weiss 2001 Matsushita et. al. 2002 median of derivative spatial derivative temporal median integration
Hypothesis: A similar method can be applied to handle underwater flicker Distinguishing aspects Very frequent changes (spatially and temporally) Gradual changes (spatially and temporally) Veiling light (not multiplicative) DC (mean energy) value: implication to color
Spatio-Temporal Patterns Raw frames Flicker-removed Y. Schechner & N. Karpel, Attenuating flicker
Spatio-Temporal Patterns Raw frames Flicker-removed Y. Schechner & N. Karpel, Attenuating flicker
Not a Final Word Stabilize illumination This is heuristic. …Place for better sophistication? Yoav Schechner & Nir Karpel