Illuminant Color Estimation Method Using Valuable Pixels

Abstract

It is a challenging problem to most of the image processing when the light source is unknown. The color of the light source must be estimated in order to compensate color changes. To estimate the color of the light source, additional assumption is need, so that we assumed color distribution according to the light source. If the pixels, which do not satisfy the assumption, are used, the estimation fails to provide an accurate result. The most popular color distribution assumption is Grey-World Assumption (GWA); it is the assumption that the color in each scene, the surface reflectance averages to gray or achromatic color over the entire images. In this paper, we analyze the characteristics of the camera response function, and the effect of the Grey-World Assumption on the pixel value and chromaticity, based on the inherent characteristics of the light source. Besides, we propose a novel method that detects important pixels for the color estimation of the light source. In our method, we firstly proposed a method that gives weights to pixels satisfying the assumption. Then, we proposed a pixel detection method, which we modified max-RGB method, to apply on the weighted pixels. Maximum weighted pixels in the column direction and row direction in one channel are detected. The performance of our method is verified through demonstrations in several real scenes. Proposed method better accurately estimate the color of the light than previous methods.