A Spatial Post-Processing Algorithm for Images of Night Scenes

William B. Thompson and Peter Shirley
University of Utah

James A. Ferwerda
Cornell University

This paper appears in issue Volume 7, Number 1.
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Abstract

The standard technique for making images viewed at daytime lighting levels look like images of night scenes is to use a low overall contrast, low overall brightness, desaturation, and to give the image a “blue shift.” This paper introduces two other important effects associated with viewing real night scenes: visible noise, and the loss of acuity with little corresponding perceived blur.

Author Information

William B. Thompson, University of Utah, School of Computing, 50 S Central Campus Drive, Rm. 3190, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 thompson@cs.utah.edu

Peter Shirley, University of Utah, School of Computing, 50 S. Central Campus Drive, Rm. 3190, Salt Lake City, UT 84112 shirley@cs.utah.edu

James A. Ferwerda, Cornell University, Computer Graphics Center, 580 Rhodes Hall, Ithaca, NY 14853 jaf@graphics.cornell.edu

Figures

The following are figures from the text. (Click on a thumbnail to see the full image.)

[Thumbnail of Figure 3]

Figure 3. Original image.

[Thumbnail of Figure 4]

Figure 4. Day-for-night tone mapping.

[Thumbnail of Figure 5]

Figure 5. Blurred to remove fine detail.

[Thumbnail of Figure 6]

Figure 6. Night-filtered, with the same level of fine detail as in Figure 5.

[Thumbnail of Figure 7]

Figure 7. Blurred plus noise.

[Thumbnail of Figure 8]

Figure 8. Night-filtered plus noise.

BibTeX Entry

@article{ThompsonShirleyFerwerda02,
  author = "William B. Thompson and Peter Shirley and James A. Ferwerda",
  title = "A Spatial Post-Processing Algorithm for Images of Night Scenes",
  journal = "journal of graphics tools",
  volume = "7",
  number = "1",
  pages = "1-12",
  year = "2002",
}