Method and apparatus for inverse tone mapping

Abstract

In this invention, we propose a convolutional neural network (CNN) based architecture designed for the ITM to HDR consumer displays, called ITM-CNN, and its training strategy for enhancing the performance based on image decomposition using the guided filter. We demonstrate the benefits of decomposing the image by experimenting with various architectures and also compare the performance for different training strategies. To the best of our knowledge, this invention first presents the ITM problem using CNNs for HDR consumer displays, where the network is trained to restore lost details and local contrast. Our ITM-CNN can readily up-convert LDR images for direct viewing on an HDR consumer medium, and is a very powerful means to solve the lack of HDR video contents with legacy LDR videos.