Haze-Aware Attention Network for Single-Image Dehazing

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel haze-aware attention network that combines physical principles and multiscale frequency enhancement to improve single-image dehazing performance efficiently.

Contribution

It proposes a new Haze-Aware Attention Module integrated with a Multiscale Frequency Enhancement Module within a U-Net framework, advancing dehazing accuracy and efficiency.

Findings

Outperforms existing models on public datasets

Sets new benchmarks in dehazing effectiveness

Enhances high-frequency details with minimal parameters

Abstract

Single-image dehazing is a pivotal challenge in computer vision that seeks to remove haze from images and restore clean background details. Recognizing the limitations of traditional physical model-based methods and the inefficiencies of current attention-based solutions, we propose a new dehazing network combining an innovative Haze-Aware Attention Module (HAAM) with a Multiscale Frequency Enhancement Module (MFEM). The HAAM is inspired by the atmospheric scattering model, thus skillfully integrating physical principles into high-dimensional features for targeted dehazing. It picks up on latent features during the image restoration process, which gives a significant boost to the metrics, while the MFEM efficiently enhances high-frequency details, thus sidestepping wavelet or Fourier transform complexities. It employs multiscale fields to extract and emphasize key frequency components with minimal parameter overhead. Integrated into a simple U-Net framework, our Haze-Aware Attention Network (HAA-Net) for single-image dehazing significantly outperforms existing attention-based and transformer models in efficiency and effectiveness. Tested across various public datasets, the HAA-Net sets new performance benchmarks. Our work not only advances the field of image dehazing but also offers insights into the design of attention mechanisms for broader applications in computer vision.