Apparatus and method for single image dehazing considering haze type classification

A method of dehazing an image having a haze condition and a haze-type class, comprising:

• creating a plurality of image sets by splitting a plurality of ground truth images, wherein the plurality of image sets includes an outdoor image set, a street image set, a farmland image set, and a satellite image set;
• transitioning each image set of the plurality of image sets by overlaying a synthetic haze condition to obtain a hazy dataset including a plurality of transitioned hazy images having a plurality of haze conditions, wherein the synthetic haze condition includes a haze intensity level;
• training a plurality of haze-type classifier models and a plurality of specialized dehazer models with the hazy dataset;
• determining a classifier model from the plurality of haze-type classifier models based on a classifier selector, wherein the classifier selector is a hybrid conditional classifier (HCC);
• processing the image in accordance with a requirement of each haze-type classifier model of the plurality of haze-type classifier models to obtain a processed image;
• determining the haze-type class of the image by the classifier model based on the processed image with the classifier model selected from the plurality of haze-type classifier models;
• determining a dehazer from the plurality of specialized dehazer models based on the haze-type class;
• and
• dehazing the image by removing the haze condition with the dehazer.