# Underwater Image Restoration via Contrastive Learning and a Real-world Dataset

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2106.10718 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.10718/

## Key facts

- Cited by 15 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 20 of its 64 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Jun 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 20 of 20)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [A Simple Framework for Contrastive Learning of Visual Representations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.05709/) (2020)
- [Momentum Contrast for Unsupervised Visual Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.05722/) (2019)
- [Densely Connected Convolutional Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.06993/) (2016)
- [Image-to-Image Translation with Conditional Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1611.07004/) (2016)
- [Spectral Normalization for Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.05957/) (2018)
- [Instance Normalization: The Missing Ingredient for Fast Stylization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1607.08022/) (2016)
- [Contrastive Learning for Unpaired Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.15651/) (2020)
- [DehazeNet: An End-to-End System for Single Image Haze Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1601.07661/) (2016)
- [An Underwater Image Enhancement Benchmark Dataset and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05495/) (2019)
- [Fast Underwater Image Enhancement for Improved Visual Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.09766/) (2019)
- [Enhancing Underwater Imagery using Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.04011/) (2018)
- [Underwater Single Image Color Restoration Using Haze-Lines and a New Quantitative Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.01343/) (2018)
- [Real-world Underwater Enhancement: Challenges, Benchmarks, and Solutions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1901.05320/) (2019)
- [Dual Contrastive Learning for Unsupervised Image-to-Image Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.07689/) (2021)
- [Emerging from Water: Underwater Image Color Correction Based on Weakly Supervised Color Transfer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1710.07084/) (2017)
- [Diving Deeper into Underwater Image Enhancement: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1907.07863/) (2019)
- [Single Underwater Image Restoration by Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.09697/) (2021)
- [Visual-Quality-Driven Learning for Underwater Vision Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.04624/) (2018)

## Built on by (most cited first, 15 of 15)

- [SeaThru-NeRF: Neural Radiance Fields in Scattering Media](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.07743/) (2023)
- [Contrastive Semi-supervised Learning for Underwater Image Restoration via Reliable Bank](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.09101/) (2023)
- [UCL-Dehaze: Towards Real-world Image Dehazing via Unsupervised Contrastive Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.01871/) (2022)
- [Blind Image Decomposition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.11364/) (2021)
- [Osmosis: RGBD Diffusion Prior for Underwater Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.14837/) (2024)
- [Improving Underwater Visual Tracking With a Large Scale Dataset and Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.15816/) (2023)
- [A Comprehensive Survey on Underwater Image Enhancement Based on Deep Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.19684/) (2024)
- [HUPE: Heuristic Underwater Perceptual Enhancement with Semantic Collaborative Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.18296/) (2024)
- [Downstream Task Inspired Underwater Image Enhancement: A Perception-Aware Study from Dataset Construction to Network Design](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.01767/) (2026)
- [RSFDM-Net: Real-time Spatial and Frequency Domains Modulation Network for Underwater Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.12186/) (2023)
- [Unveiling the Underwater World: CLIP Perception Model-Guided Underwater Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.06234/) (2025)
- [From Restoration to Reconstruction: Rethinking 3D Gaussian Splatting for Underwater Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.17789/) (2025)
- [Virtual Underwater Datasets for Autonomous Inspections](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.06013/) (2022)
- [CARNet: Collaborative Adversarial Resilience for Robust Underwater Image Enhancement and Perception](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.01102/) (2023)
- [DichroGAN: Towards Restoration of in-air Colours of Seafloor from Satellite Imagery](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.00194/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Underwater image restoration is of significant importance in unveiling the underwater world. Numerous techniques and algorithms have been developed in the past decades. However, due to fundamental difficulties associated with imaging/sensing, lighting, and refractive geometric distortions, in capturing clear underwater images, no comprehensive evaluations have been conducted of underwater image restoration. To address this gap, we have constructed a large-scale real underwater image dataset, dubbed `HICRD' (Heron Island Coral Reef Dataset), for the purpose of benchmarking existing methods and supporting the development of new deep-learning based methods. We employ accurate water parameter (diffuse attenuation coefficient) in generating reference images. There are 2000 reference restored images and 6003 original underwater images in the unpaired training set. Further, we present a novel method for underwater image restoration based on unsupervised image-to-image translation framework. Our proposed method leveraged contrastive learning and generative adversarial networks to maximize the mutual information between raw and restored images. Extensive experiments with comparisons to recent approaches further demonstrate the superiority of our proposed method. Our code and dataset are publicly available at GitHub.