Microsoft Technology Licensing, LLC

Leon Rosenshein

David J Simons

Ido Omer

Wolfgang Schickler

Yuxiang Liu

Robert Ledner

Maksim Lepikhin

Rob Ledner

Techniques for atmospheric and solar correction of aerial images are described. An apparatus may comprise an atmospheric and solar component arranged for execution by a logic device and operative to correct solar and atmosphere artifacts from an aerial image. The atmospheric and solar component may comprise an image information component operative to generate an image record for each aerial image of a group of aerial images, the image record comprising statistical information and image context information for each aerial image, a filter generation component operative to generate an atmospheric filter and a solar filter from the statistical information and the image context information stored in the image records, and an image correction component operative to correct atmospheric and solar artifacts from the aerial image using the respective atmospheric filter and solar filter. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Techniques for atmospheric and solar correction of aerial images

A method for tone mapping a high dynamic range image of a large terrestrial area into a lower dynamic range image uses a globally aware, locally adaptive approach whereby local tonal balancing parameter values are derived from known tone mapping parameters for a local 3&#xd7;3 matrix of image tiles and used in turn to derive a local sigmoid transfer function for pixels in the tile in the middle of the matrix. A global sigmoid transfer function is derived based on values of the tone mapping parameters applicable to the entire image. A lower dynamic range image pixel will have a local tone mapped value and a globally tone mapped value, which are combined by giving each a weighted value to provide a final low dynamitic range pixel value.

Tone mapping of very large aerial image mosaic

When photographs are to be combined into a single image, haze correction and/or color balancing may be performed. The photographs may be analyzed and left-clipped in order to darken the photographs and to increase the density of pixels in the low-luminosity region, thereby decreasing the perception of haze. When the photographs are combined into one continuous image, tie points are selected that lie in regions where the photographs overlap. The tie points may be selected based on visual similarity of the photographs in the region around the tie point, using a variety of algorithms. Functions are then chosen to generate saturation and luminosity values that minimize, at the tie points, the cost of using the generated values as opposed to the actual saturation and luminosity values. These functions are then used to generate saturation and luminosity values for the full image.

Color balancing for partially overlapping images

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Leon Rosenshein