An engineer and oceanographer has created a remarkable algorithm that can “remove the water” from underwater images, giving them back remarkable color and clarity, as if the water was never there at all.
Derya Akkaynak, an engineer and oceanographer, has developed an algorithm that can “remove the water” from underwater images. One of the primary issues with underwater photography is that different wavelengths of light penetrate to different depths, creating increasing color shifts with depth. The other issue is haze introduced by backscattering, which reduces clarity more and more with increasing distance between the subject and photographer. The method, called “Sea-Thru,” does a remarkable job at restoring proper color and clarity in the image, essentially making it look as if the water wasn’t there in the first place.Â
Akkaynak has clarified that the method does not require the use of a color chart. The algorithm only needs multiple images of the scene lit by natural light.Â
There’s no word yet on if the algorithm will make its way into commercial uses or appear in any sort of software, but I certainly hope to see it make its way there eventually! The results are quite amazing, as you can see in the video above.Â
If you would really like to dive into the math behind the algorithm, you can read the full paper here.