# UIE-UnFold: Deep Unfolding Network with Color Priors and Vision Transformer for Underwater Image Enhancement

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2408.10653 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2408.10653/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 27 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 20 Aug 2024.

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Deep Features as a Perceptual Metric](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.03924/) (2018)
- [Implicit Neural Representations with Periodic Activation Functions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2006.09661/) (2020)
- [Multi-Stage Progressive Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2102.02808/) (2021)
- [Simple Baselines for Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.04676/) (2022)
- [Deep Unfolding Network for Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.10428/) (2020)
- [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)
- [Underwater Image Enhancement via Medium Transmission-Guided Multi-Color Space Embedding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.13015/) (2021)
- [Deep Generalized Unfolding Networks for Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.13348/) (2022)
- [U-shape Transformer for Underwater Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.11843/) (2021)
- [Enhancing Underwater Imagery using Generative Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.04011/) (2018)
- [Denoising Prior Driven Deep Neural Network for Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1801.06756/) (2018)
- [Deep Unfolding: Model-Based Inspiration of Novel Deep Architectures](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.2574/) (2014)
- [Uncertainty Inspired Underwater Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.09689/) (2022)
- [PUGAN: Physical Model-Guided Underwater Image Enhancement Using GAN with Dual-Discriminators](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.08918/) (2023)
- [High-Resolution Document Shadow Removal via A Large-Scale Real-World Dataset and A Frequency-Aware Shadow Erasing Net](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.14221/) (2023)
- [Wavelength-based Attributed Deep Neural Network for Underwater Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.07910/) (2021)
- [A Large-scale Film Style Dataset for Learning Multi-frequency Driven Film Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.08880/) (2023)
- [Brain Diffuser: An End-to-End Brain Image to Brain Network Pipeline](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.06410/) (2023)
- [Dual-Hybrid Attention Network for Specular Highlight Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.12255/) (2024)
- [Devignet: High-Resolution Vignetting Removal via a Dual Aggregated Fusion Transformer With Adaptive Channel Expansion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.13739/) (2023)
- [A Wavelet-based Dual-stream Network for Underwater Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.08758/) (2022)
- [ShaDocNet: Learning Spatial-Aware Tokens in Transformer for Document Shadow Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.16675/) (2022)
- [A Generalized Physical-knowledge-guided Dynamic Model for Underwater Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05447/) (2023)
- [MFDNet: Multi-Frequency Deflare Network for Efficient Nighttime Flare Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2406.18079/) (2024)
- [WavEnhancer: Unifying Wavelet and Transformer for Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2212.08327/) (2022)
- [QEAN: Quaternion-Enhanced Attention Network for Visual Dance Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.11626/) (2024)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [SFormer: SNR-guided Transformer for Underwater Image Enhancement from the Frequency Domain](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.18664/) (2025)
- [Variational Deep Unfolding with Mamba-Based Nonlocal Modeling for Underwater Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.14781/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Underwater image enhancement (UIE) plays a crucial role in various marine applications, but it remains challenging due to the complex underwater environment. Current learning-based approaches frequently lack explicit incorporation of prior knowledge about the physical processes involved in underwater image formation, resulting in limited optimization despite their impressive enhancement results. This paper proposes a novel deep unfolding network (DUN) for UIE that integrates color priors and inter-stage feature transformation to improve enhancement performance. The proposed DUN model combines the iterative optimization and reliability of model-based methods with the flexibility and representational power of deep learning, offering a more explainable and stable solution compared to existing learning-based UIE approaches. The proposed model consists of three key components: a Color Prior Guidance Block (CPGB) that establishes a mapping between color channels of degraded and original images, a Nonlinear Activation Gradient Descent Module (NAGDM) that simulates the underwater image degradation process, and an Inter Stage Feature Transformer (ISF-Former) that facilitates feature exchange between different network stages. By explicitly incorporating color priors and modeling the physical characteristics of underwater image formation, the proposed DUN model achieves more accurate and reliable enhancement results. Extensive experiments on multiple underwater image datasets demonstrate the superiority of the proposed model over state-of-the-art methods in both quantitative and qualitative evaluations. The proposed DUN-based approach offers a promising solution for UIE, enabling more accurate and reliable scientific analysis in marine research. The code is available at https://github.com/CXH-Research/UIE-UnFold.