Tone Mapping by Interactive Evolution

Abstract

Tone mapping is a computational task of significance in the context of displaying high dynamic range images on low dynamic range devices. While a number of tone mapping algorithms have been proposed and are in common use, there is no single operator that yields optimal results under all conditions. Moreover, obtaining satisfactory mappings often requires the manual tweaking of parameters. This thesis proposes interactive evolution as a computational tool for tone mapping. An evolution strategy that blends the results from several tone mapping operators while at the same time adapting their parameters is proposed. As well, the results are adapted such that such that approximately uniform perceptual distances between offspring candidate solutions and the parent are ensured. The introduction of a perceptually based step size adaptation technique enhances the control of the variability between newly generated offspring, when compared to parameter space step size adaptation.