%0 Journal Article %A CHENG Yu %A DENG Dexiang %A FAN Ci'en %A YAN Jia %T Weakly illuminated image enhancement algorithm based on convolutional neural network %D 2019 %R 10.11772/j.issn.1001-9081.2018091979 %J Journal of Computer Applications %P 1162-1169 %V 39 %N 4 %X Existing weakly illuminated image enhancement algorithms are strongly dependent on Retinex model and require manual adjustment of parameters. To solve those problems, an algorithm based on Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) was proposed to enhance weakly illuminated image. Firstly, four image enhancement techniques were used to process weakly illuminated image to obtain four derivative images, including contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization derivative image, Gamma correction derivative image, logarithmic correction derivative image and bright channel enhancement derivative image. Then, the weakly illuminated image and its four derivative images were input into CNN. Finally, the enhanced image was output after activation by CNN. The proposed algorithm can directly map the weakly illuminated image to the normal illuminated image in end-to-end way without estimating the illumination map or reflection map according to Retinex model nor adjusting any parameters. The proposed algorithm was compared with Naturalness Preserved Enhancement Algorithm for non-uniform illumination images (NPEA), Low-light image enhancement via Illumination Map Estimation (LIME), LightenNet (LNET), etc. In the experiment on synthetic weakly illuminated images, the average Mean Square Error (MSE), Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and Structural SIMilarity index (SSIM) metrics of the proposed algorithm are superior to comparison algorithms. In the real weakly illuminated images experiment, the average Natural Image Quality Evaluator (NIQE) and entropy metric of the proposed algorithm are the best of all comparison algorithms, and the average contrast gain metric ranks the second among all algorithms. Experimental results show that compared with comparison algorithms, the proposed algorithm has better robustness, and the details of the images enhanced by the proposed algorithm are richer, the contrast is higher, and the visual effect and image quality are better. %U http://www.joca.cn/EN/10.11772/j.issn.1001-9081.2018091979