Real-Time Biologically-Inspired Image Exposure Correction

Abstract : This chapter presents a real-time FPGA implementation of a biologically-inspired image enhancement algorithm. The algorithm compensates for the under/over-exposed image regions, emerging when High Dynamic Range (HDR) scenes are captured by contemporary imaging devices. The transformations of the original algorithm, which are necessary in order to meet the requirements of an FPGA-based hardware system, are presented in detail. The proposed implementation, which is synthesized in Altera's Stratix II GX: EP2SGX130GF1508C5 FPGA device, features pipeline architecture, allowing the real-time rendering of color video sequences (25fps) with frame sizes up to 2.5Mpixels.