US Patent 9288458 Fast digital image de-hazing methods for real-time video processing

Described is system for image de-hazing for real-time video processing. A video comprising image frames is received as input. In determining an atmospheric veil value to use, the system leverages temporal correlations or specific scene constraints to determine whether to use a new atmospheric veil value or a previously determined atmospheric veil value. A global atmospheric light value is estimated as an average of a set of the brightest pixels in an upper region of an image frame. A de-hazed image is generated from the current image frame using either the previously determined atmospheric veil value or the new atmospheric veil value and the global atmospheric light value.