An optimal underwater image enhancement based on fuzzy gray world algorithm and Bacterial Foraging algorithm

Underwater images suffer from non uniform contrast and poor visibility due to bad illumination and color cast in deep water. Such images have a hazy and color diminished appearance making underwater studies a difficult task. Researches in last decades performed color correction, assuming that underwater images have bluish color cast which is not always true. In this paper, a new image enhancement approach is proposed which modifies the gray world algorithm by finding the color cast using fuzzy logic and then removing the color cast by optimizing the correction method using Bacterial Foraging Optimisation (BFO). Proposed approach is adaptive in nature as it finds the intensity of color cast instead of assuming it which improves the quality of underwater images. Computed results have enhanced visual details, contrast and color performance.