{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,5,18]],"date-time":"2026-05-18T17:55:30Z","timestamp":1779126930655,"version":"3.51.4"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"7","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,28]],"date-time":"2023-03-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1679961600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000270","name":"NERC","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["NE\/N012070\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NE\/N012070\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000270","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000270","name":"NERC","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["EP\/S028730\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["EP\/S028730\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000270","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000266","name":"EPSRC","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["NE\/N012070\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["NE\/N012070\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000266","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]},{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100000266","name":"EPSRC","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["EP\/S028730\/1"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["EP\/S028730\/1"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100000266","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Sensors"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Domain experts prefer interactive and targeted control-point tone mapping operations (TMOs) to enhance underwater image quality and feature visibility; though this comes at the expense of time and training. In this paper, we provide end-users with a simpler and faster interactive tone-mapping approach. This is built upon Weibull Tone Mapping (WTM) theory; introduced in previous work as a preferred tool to describe and improve domain expert TMOs. We allow end-users to easily shape brightness distributions according to the Weibull distribution, using two parameter sliders which modify the distribution peak and spread. Our experiments showed that 10 domain experts found the two-slider Weibull manipulation sufficed to make a desired adjustment in &gt;80% of images in a large dataset. For the remaining \u223c20%, observers opted for a control-point TMO which can, broadly, encompass many global tone mapping algorithms. Importantly, 91% of these control-point TMOs can actually be visually well-approximated by our Weibull slider manipulation, despite users not identifying slider parameters themselves. Our work stresses the benefit of the Weibull distribution and significance of image purpose in underwater image enhancement.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/s23073533","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,28]],"date-time":"2023-03-28T06:15:15Z","timestamp":1679984115000},"page":"3533","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Weibull Tone Mapping (WTM) for the Enhancement of Underwater Imagery"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"23","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0507-0054","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Chloe Amanda","family":"Game","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK"},{"name":"Gardline Ltd., Prospect House, Hewett Road, Great Yarmouth NR31 0NN, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Michael Barry","family":"Thompson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Mott Macdonald Ltd., East Wing, 69-75 Thorpe Road, Norwich NR1 1UA, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-4040-0554","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Graham David","family":"Finlayson","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"School of Computing Sciences, University of East Anglia, Norwich NR4 7TJ, UK"}],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,28]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","first-page":"1","article-title":"Perspectives in Visual Imaging for Marine Biology and Ecology: From Acquisition to Understanding","volume":"Volume 54","author":"Durden","year":"2016","journal-title":"Oceanography and Marine Biology: An Annual Review"},{"key":"ref_2","first-page":"401","article-title":"Solar energy and its biological-physical interactions in the sea","volume":"Volume 12","author":"Robinson","year":"2002","journal-title":"The Sea"},{"key":"ref_3","unstructured":"Inzartsev, A.V. (2009). Underwater Vehicles, IntechOpen."},{"key":"ref_4","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Schoening, T., Bergmann, M., and Nattkemper, T.W. (2012, January 14\u201319). Investigation of hidden parameters influencing the automated object detection in images from the deep seafloor of the HAUSGARTEN observatory. Proceedings of the 2012 Oceans, Hampton Roads, VA, USA.","DOI":"10.1109\/OCEANS.2012.6405040"},{"key":"ref_5","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"379","DOI":"10.1002\/j.1538-7305.1948.tb01338.x","article-title":"A mathematical theory of communication","volume":"27","author":"Shannon","year":"1948","journal-title":"Bell Syst. Tech. J."},{"key":"ref_6","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"184","DOI":"10.1016\/S0146-664X(77)80011-7","article-title":"Image enhancement by histogram transformation","volume":"6","author":"Hummel","year":"1977","journal-title":"Comput. Graph. Image Process."},{"key":"ref_7","unstructured":"Gonzales, R.C., and Woods, R.E. (2002). Digital Image Processing, Prentice Hall. [3rd ed.]."},{"key":"ref_8","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"355","DOI":"10.1016\/S0734-189X(87)80186-X","article-title":"Adaptive histogram equalization and its variations","volume":"39","author":"Pizer","year":"1987","journal-title":"Comput. Vision, Graph. Image Process."},{"key":"ref_9","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Game, C.A., Thompson, M.B., and Finlayson, G.D. Weibull Tone Mapping for Underwater Imagery. Proceedings of the Color and Imaging Conference 2020.","DOI":"10.2352\/issn.2169-2629.2020.28.24"},{"key":"ref_10","unstructured":"Zuiderveld, K. (1994). Graphics Gems IV, Academic Press Professional, Inc."},{"key":"ref_11","first-page":"2","article-title":"Underwater Image Enhancement Using an Integrated Colour Model","volume":"34","author":"Iqbal","year":"2007","journal-title":"Iaeng Int. J. Comput. Sci."},{"key":"ref_12","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hitam, M.S., Awalludin, E.A., Jawahir Hj Wan Yussof, W.N., and Bachok, Z. (2013, January 20\u201322). Mixture contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization for underwater image enhancement. Proceedings of the 2013 International Conference on Computer Applications Technology, Sousse, Tunisia.","DOI":"10.1109\/ICCAT.2013.6522017"},{"key":"ref_13","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"332","DOI":"10.1016\/j.asoc.2015.08.033","article-title":"Enhancement of low quality underwater image through integrated global and local contrast correction","volume":"37","author":"Ghani","year":"2015","journal-title":"Appl. Soft Comput."},{"key":"ref_14","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"219","DOI":"10.1016\/j.asoc.2014.11.020","article-title":"Underwater image quality enhancement through integrated color model with Rayleigh distribution","volume":"27","author":"Ghani","year":"2015","journal-title":"Appl. Soft Comput."},{"key":"ref_15","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"224","DOI":"10.1016\/j.oceaneng.2018.05.027","article-title":"Image contrast enhancement using an integration of recursive-overlapped contrast limited adaptive histogram specification and dual-image wavelet fusion for the high visibility of deep underwater image","volume":"162","author":"Ghani","year":"2018","journal-title":"Ocean. Eng."},{"key":"ref_16","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"128973","DOI":"10.1109\/ACCESS.2020.3009161","article-title":"Underwater Image Enhancement Based on Global and Local Equalization of Histogram and Dual-Image Multi-Scale Fusion","volume":"8","author":"Bai","year":"2020","journal-title":"IEEE Access"},{"key":"ref_17","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"106981","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compeleceng.2021.106981","article-title":"Color correction and adaptive contrast enhancement for underwater image enhancement","volume":"91","author":"Zhang","year":"2021","journal-title":"Comput. Electr. Eng."},{"key":"ref_18","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"718","DOI":"10.1109\/JOE.2022.3140563","article-title":"Underwater Image Enhancement by Attenuated Color Channel Correction and Detail Preserved Contrast Enhancement","volume":"47","author":"Zhang","year":"2022","journal-title":"IEEE J. Ocean. Eng."},{"key":"ref_19","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1","DOI":"10.1155\/2010\/746052","article-title":"Underwater Image Processing: State of the Art of Restoration and Image Enhancement Methods","volume":"2010","author":"Schettini","year":"2010","journal-title":"Eurasip J. Adv. Signal Process."},{"key":"ref_20","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Hu, K., Weng, C., Zhang, Y., Jin, J., and Xia, Q. (2022). An Overview of Underwater Vision Enhancement: From Traditional Methods to Recent Deep Learning. J. Mar. Sci. Eng., 10.","DOI":"10.3390\/jmse10020241"},{"key":"ref_21","unstructured":"Game, C.A., Thompson, M.B., and Finalyson, G.D. (September, January 30). Chromatic Weibull Tone Mapping for Underwater Image Enhancement. Proceedings of the International Colour Association Congress, Milan, Italy."},{"key":"ref_22","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"293","DOI":"10.1115\/1.4010337","article-title":"A Statistical Distribution Function of Wide Applicability","volume":"18","author":"Weibull","year":"1951","journal-title":"J. Appl. Mech."},{"key":"ref_23","unstructured":"Johnson, N.L., Kotz, S., and Balakrishnan, N. (1995). Continuous Univariate Distributions, Volume 2, John Wiley & Sons. [3rd ed.]."},{"key":"ref_24","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"65","DOI":"10.1117\/1.1636762","article-title":"Improving the Retinex algorithm for rendering wide dynamic range photographs","volume":"13","author":"Sobol","year":"2004","journal-title":"J. Electron. Imaging"},{"key":"ref_25","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"McVey, J., Finlayson, G., and Finlayson, G. (2019, January 21\u201325). Least-Squares Optimal Contrast Limited Histogram Equalisation. Proceedings of the Color and Imaging Conference, Paris, France.","DOI":"10.2352\/issn.2169-2629.2019.27.46"},{"key":"ref_26","unstructured":"Eustice, R., Pizarro, O., Singh, H., and Howland, J. (2002, January 19). UWIT: Underwater image toolbox for optical image processing and mosaicking in MATLAB. Proceedings of the 2002 International Symposium on Underwater Technology (Cat. No. 02EX556), Tokyo, Japan."},{"key":"ref_27","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"73","DOI":"10.1080\/14786448008626893","article-title":"XII. On the resultant of a large number of vibrations of the same pitch and of arbitrary phase","volume":"10","author":"Rayleigh","year":"1880","journal-title":"London Edinburgh Dublin Philos. Mag. J. Sci."},{"key":"ref_28","unstructured":"Wikipedia (2023, February 23). Weibull Distribution. Available online: https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Weibull_distribution."},{"key":"ref_29","unstructured":"Geusebroek, J.M., and Smeulders, A.W. (2002, January 1). A physical explanation for natural image statistics. Proceedings of the 2nd International Workshop on Texture Analysis and Synthesis, Copenhagen, Denmark."},{"key":"ref_30","unstructured":"Yanulevskaya, V., and Geusebroek, J.M. (2009, January 5\u20138). Significance of the Weibull Distribution and its Sub-models in Natural Image Statistics. Proceedings of the VISAPP 2009\u2014Proceedings of the Fourth International Conference on Computer Vision Theory and Applications, Lisbon, Portugal."},{"key":"ref_31","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"29","DOI":"10.1167\/9.4.29","article-title":"Brain responses strongly correlate with Weibull image statistics when processing natural images","volume":"9","author":"Scholte","year":"2009","journal-title":"J. Vis."},{"key":"ref_32","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"300","DOI":"10.1137\/0905021","article-title":"A Method for Constructing Local Monotone Piecewise Cubic Interpolants","volume":"5","author":"Fritsch","year":"1984","journal-title":"Siam J. Sci. Stat. Comput."},{"key":"ref_33","unstructured":"(2009). Technical Report (Standard No. ISO 3664:2009)."},{"key":"ref_34","unstructured":"Li, C.Y., Mazzon, R., and Cavallaro, A. (2022, December 22). Underwater Image Filtering: Methods, Datasets and Evaluation. Available online: http:\/\/arxiv.org\/abs\/2012.12258."},{"key":"ref_35","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"151:1","DOI":"10.1145\/3578584","article-title":"UID2021: An Underwater Image Dataset for Evaluation of No-Reference Quality Assessment Metrics","volume":"19","author":"Hou","year":"2023","journal-title":"Acm Trans. Multimed. Comput. Commun. Appl."},{"key":"ref_36","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"541","DOI":"10.1109\/JOE.2015.2469915","article-title":"Human-Visual-System-Inspired Underwater Image Quality Measures","volume":"41","author":"Panetta","year":"2016","journal-title":"IEEE J. Ocean. Eng."},{"key":"ref_37","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"6062","DOI":"10.1109\/TIP.2015.2491020","article-title":"An Underwater Color Image Quality Evaluation Metric","volume":"24","author":"Yang","year":"2015","journal-title":"IEEE Trans. Image Process."},{"key":"ref_38","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"904","DOI":"10.1016\/j.compeleceng.2017.12.006","article-title":"An imaging-inspired no-reference underwater color image quality assessment metric","volume":"70","author":"Wang","year":"2018","journal-title":"Comput. Electr. Eng."},{"key":"ref_39","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Reinhard, E., Khan, E.A., Akyz, A.O., and Johnson, G.M. (2008). Color Imaging: Fundamentals and Applications, A K Peters, Ltd.\/CRC Press.","DOI":"10.1201\/b10637"},{"key":"ref_40","unstructured":"Lindbloom, B.J. (August, January 31). Accurate color reproduction for computer graphics applications. Proceedings of the 16th Annual Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, Boston, MA, USA."},{"key":"ref_41","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1902","DOI":"10.1002\/ece3.587","article-title":"Manta Matcher: Automated photographic identification of manta rays using keypoint features","volume":"3","author":"Town","year":"2013","journal-title":"Ecol. Evol."}],"container-title":["Sensors"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/23\/7\/3533\/pdf","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2025,10,10]],"date-time":"2025-10-10T19:04:55Z","timestamp":1760123095000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.mdpi.com\/1424-8220\/23\/7\/3533"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,28]]},"references-count":41,"journal-issue":{"issue":"7","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2023,4]]}},"alternative-id":["s23073533"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/s23073533","relation":{},"ISSN":["1424-8220"],"issn-type":[{"value":"1424-8220","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2023,3,28]]}}}