Color Mismatch Compensation Method Based on a Physical Model

A new method for detecting and correcting color-timing mismatch in digital film is proposed. This method is based on a physical model which accounts for the absorption of light by the different layers of the film. The whole process consists of five sequential stages: shot change detection, registration, degraded zone detection, and unreliable motion detection and correction. One of the main issues in this paper is how to align the degraded and reference frames in the case of varying illumination conditions. A new transformation, based on the proposed physical model, is derived to make the data term of the optical flow framework robust to color change. The degraded regions are then detected and restored by using the computed flow field. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated through extensive tests on both simulated and real high definition films. The obtained results are very promising and confirm the efficiency of the proposed method.