Comparative study on several blind deconvolution algorithms applied to underwater image restoration

Although the use of blind deconvolution of image restoration is a widely known concept, only few reports have discussed in detail its application to solving problem of restoration of underwater range-gated laser images. A comparative study of underwater image restoration using the Richardson-Lucy algorithm, the least-squares algorithm, and the multiplicative iterative algorithm for blind deconvolution is presented. All the deconvolution approaches use denoised underwater images and Wells' small angle approximation theory of derived point spread function as the initial object and degradation guess, respectively. Owing the underwater no-reference imaging environment, image quality judgment based on the blur metric method is incorporated in our comparison to determine the appropriate deconvolution iteration number for each algorithm, which objectively evaluates the image restoration results. The performance of the three algorithms applied to underwater image restoration is discussed and reported.