An Improved Color Cast Detection Method Based on an AB―Chromaticity Histogram.docVIP

An Improved Color Cast Detection Method Based on an AB―Chromaticity Histogram 　　Abstract 　　AB-chromaticity histogram analysis works well most of the time， but it may not work well when the color cast is not severe. To overcome this problem， we propose an improved， two-step automatic cast-detection method. First， we compute the RGB color variance to evaluate the quality of the input image. If this variance is very small， we extract near-neutral color areas and compute the local ab-chromaticity histogram. We use this local ab-chromaticity histogram to evaluate the quality of the input image. This method has been tested in ZTE’s video surveillance system. The results show that the proposed method produces better results based on subjective evaluation and is more efficient in various conditions. 　　Keywords 　　color cast； AB-chromaticity histogram； near-neutral color areas 　　1 Introduction 　　Many image processing algorithms are currently in use thanks to the Internet and the growing popularity of smart devices. Because of the differences between human eyes and digital camera lenses， it is necessary to develop techniques for automatic focusing， exposure， color adjustment， and white balance in order to improve the qualitiy of color in captured images. 　　A number of color-adjustment algorithms have been proposed in the literature. The most widely used of these algorithms is white balance， which adjusts color cast caused by light sources. There are two categories of white balance algorithm： gray world assumption [1] and max white [2]. Gray world assumption calculates weighting values for color correction by matching the color average with a gray reference value. However， the algorithm may fail if the image only contains a few color elements. Max white derives weighting values for color correction by changing the white point in the image to a white reference point. It fails if the white point is not found in the image. 　　There are also a number of other methods for