Dehazing evaluation based on inverse degradation and SSIM

Finding a truth-value image to use as a reference poses a challenge when assessing the effectiveness of image dehazing. The assessment process is particularly difficult due to the manner in which a 3D model is utilized to synthesize the reference image. Consequently, this paper introduces a novel approach for objectively evaluating the effectiveness of haze removal. By utilizing the inverse degradation of the dehazed image as a guideline, a haze-added image is first created. Subsequently, the difference between the haze-added image and the original hazy image is calculated using the Structural Similarity Index Measure (SSIM). During the inverse degradation process, the atmospheric light is initially searched for within the image’s restricted area using the quad-tree search concept. The transmission is then estimated utilizing the blue channel prior, and the inverse degradation image is ultimately produced by solving the atmospheric scattering model. The results demonstrate that the objective index determined by the proposed algorithm aligns with the observer’s subjective evaluation of the scene.