Content Adaptive Image Detail Enhancement

Detail enhancement is required by many problems in the fields of image processing and computational photography. Existing detail enhancement algorithms first decompose a source image into a base layer and a detail layer via an edge-preserving smoothing algorithm, and then amplify the detail layer to produce a detail-enhanced image. In this letter, we propose a new L₀ norm based detail enhancement algorithm which generates the detail-enhanced image directly. The proposed algorithm preserves sharp edges better than an existing L₀ norm based algorithm. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm reduces color distortion in the detail-enhanced image, especially around sharp edges.