{"title":"Frequency-Driven Diffusion: A Hierarchical Attention Weighting Framework for Underwater Image Restoration","authors":"Longxiang Deng, Laibin Chang, Wei Liu","doi":"10.1111/coin.70095","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<div>\n \n <p>Underwater images often suffer from visual degradation, affecting downstream tasks. While recent underwater image enhancement (UIE) techniques have made some advances benefiting from deep neural networks, challenges remain in restoring fine details and achieving computational efficiency. Inspired by the success of diffusion models in image generation, we propose the Underwater Laplacian-Guided Diffusion Model (ULDM), which enhances image features layer-by-layer based on the hierarchical structure of the Laplacian pyramid transform to achieve both high-quality and efficient UIE. The Laplacian pyramid decomposes the degraded image into high- and low-frequency components, enabling the model to denoise the low-frequency spectrum and address global image degradation, thereby reducing computational overhead. To efficiently enhance high-frequency details, we introduce the Hierarchical Attention Weighted Module (HAWM) that leverages the strong pixel correlations in high-frequency sub-images at different levels, adjusting them layer-by-layer to better capture fine details. These high-frequency sub-images exhibit strong pixel correlation and consistent texture features across different layers, and their hierarchical pattern ensures effective detail restoration. Extensive experiments demonstrate that ULDM outperforms state-of-the-art methods in both quantitative and qualitative evaluations.</p>\n </div>","PeriodicalId":55228,"journal":{"name":"Computational Intelligence","volume":"41 4","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2025-06-26","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Computational Intelligence","FirstCategoryId":"94","ListUrlMain":"https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/coin.70095","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"计算机科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"COMPUTER SCIENCE, ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
Underwater images often suffer from visual degradation, affecting downstream tasks. While recent underwater image enhancement (UIE) techniques have made some advances benefiting from deep neural networks, challenges remain in restoring fine details and achieving computational efficiency. Inspired by the success of diffusion models in image generation, we propose the Underwater Laplacian-Guided Diffusion Model (ULDM), which enhances image features layer-by-layer based on the hierarchical structure of the Laplacian pyramid transform to achieve both high-quality and efficient UIE. The Laplacian pyramid decomposes the degraded image into high- and low-frequency components, enabling the model to denoise the low-frequency spectrum and address global image degradation, thereby reducing computational overhead. To efficiently enhance high-frequency details, we introduce the Hierarchical Attention Weighted Module (HAWM) that leverages the strong pixel correlations in high-frequency sub-images at different levels, adjusting them layer-by-layer to better capture fine details. These high-frequency sub-images exhibit strong pixel correlation and consistent texture features across different layers, and their hierarchical pattern ensures effective detail restoration. Extensive experiments demonstrate that ULDM outperforms state-of-the-art methods in both quantitative and qualitative evaluations.
期刊介绍:
This leading international journal promotes and stimulates research in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Covering a wide range of issues - from the tools and languages of AI to its philosophical implications - Computational Intelligence provides a vigorous forum for the publication of both experimental and theoretical research, as well as surveys and impact studies. The journal is designed to meet the needs of a wide range of AI workers in academic and industrial research.