AN IN DEPTH ANALYSIS AND IMAGE QUALITY ASSESSMENT OF AN EXPONENT BASED TONE MAPPING ALGORITHM
In order to view wide contrast details in an image scene, a wide dynamic range (WDR) image sensor is required. However, these wide dynamic range images cannot be accurately viewed on a regular display device due to its limited dynamic range. Without the proper use of a WDR image compression algorithm, the details of images will be lost. Tone mapping algorithms are used to adapt the captured wide dynamic range scenes to the low dynamic range displays available. This paper explores the utilization of an exponent tone mapping algorithm for colored and monochrome WDR images in lure of a regular display. The exponent based tone mapping algorithm utilizes only the Bayer (CFA) of the WDR image to produce tone mapped image results. High quality results are achieved without the use of additional image processing techniques such as histogram clipping. The image results are then compared with other conventional tone mapping operators available.