SuPeR: Milano Retinex implementation exploiting a regular image grid

A spatial color algorithm grounded on the Retinex theory is known as a Milano Retinex. This type of algorithm performs image enhancement by processing spatial and color cues in the neighborhood of each image pixel. Because this local, pixel-wise analysis is time consuming, optimization techniques are needed to expand the use of Milano Retinexes to applications that require fast or even real-time image processing. In this work, we propose SuPeR, an efficient optimization of the Milano Retinex local spatial color processing that exploits superpixels, which are as the regular, rectangular blocks of a grid that partitions the image support. Image enhancement is obtained by reworking channel-wise the intensity of each pixel based on the maximum color intensities of the blocks and on its distance from the blocks. The experiments, carried out on real-world image datasets, show good performance compared to other Milano Retinexes.