# Iterative Predictor-Critic Code Decoding for Real-World Image Dehazing

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2503.13147 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.13147/

## Key facts

- Cited by 17 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 29 of its 42 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 17 Mar 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 29 of 29)

- [Very Deep Convolutional Networks for Large-Scale Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1409.1556/) (2014)
- [Neural Discrete Representation Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1711.00937/) (2017)
- [Taming Transformers for High-Resolution Image Synthesis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.09841/) (2020)
- [Perceptual Losses for Real-Time Style Transfer and Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1603.08155/) (2016)
- [SwinIR: Image Restoration Using Swin Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.10257/) (2021)
- [Enhanced Deep Residual Networks for Single Image Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.02921/) (2017)
- [MaskGIT: Masked Generative Image Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.04200/) (2022)
- [MUSIQ: Multi-scale Image Quality Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.05997/) (2021)
- [Exploring CLIP for Assessing the Look and Feel of Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2207.12396/) (2022)
- [Real-ESRGAN: Training Real-World Blind Super-Resolution with Pure Synthetic Data](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.10833/) (2021)
- [MANIQA: Multi-dimension Attention Network for No-Reference Image Quality Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.08958/) (2022)
- [Q-Align: Teaching LMMs for Visual Scoring via Discrete Text-Defined Levels](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.17090/) (2023)
- [Benchmarking Single Image Dehazing and Beyond](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1712.04143/) (2017)
- [Recovering Realistic Texture in Image Super-resolution by Deep Spatial Feature Transform](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.02815/) (2018)
- [DehazeNet: An End-to-End System for Single Image Haze Removal](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1601.07661/) (2016)
- [FFA-Net: Feature Fusion Attention Network for Single Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.07559/) (2019)
- [Towards Robust Blind Face Restoration with Codebook Lookup Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.11253/) (2022)
- [Multi-Scale Boosted Dehazing Network with Dense Feature Fusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2004.13388/) (2020)
- [TOPIQ: A Top-down Approach from Semantics to Distortions for Image Quality Assessment](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.03060/) (2023)
- [The 2018 PIRM Challenge on Perceptual Image Super-resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1809.07517/) (2018)
- [VQFR: Blind Face Restoration with Vector-Quantized Dictionary and Parallel Decoder](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.06803/) (2022)
- [Domain Adaptation for Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.04668/) (2020)
- [Real-World Blind Super-Resolution via Feature Matching with Implicit High-Resolution Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.13142/) (2022)
- [DEA-Net: Single image dehazing based on detail-enhanced convolution and content-guided attention](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.04805/) (2023)
- [RIDCP: Revitalizing Real Image Dehazing via High-Quality Codebook Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.03994/) (2023)
- [Improved Masked Image Generation with Token-Critic](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2209.04439/) (2022)
- [Unsupervised Single Image Dehazing Using Dark Channel Prior Loss](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.07051/) (2018)
- [End-to-End Single Image Fog Removal using Enhanced Cycle Consistent Adversarial Networks](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.01374/) (2019)
- [Iterative Token Evaluation and Refinement for Real-World Super-Resolution](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.05616/) (2023)

## Built on by (most cited first, 17 of 17)

- [Bilevel Layer-Positioning LoRA for Real Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.10872/) (2026)
- [TPGDiff: Hierarchical Triple-Prior Guided Diffusion for Image Restoration](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.20306/) (2026)
- [OPERA: An Agent for Image Restoration with End-to-End Joint Planning-Execution Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2605.22104/) (2026)
- [Adaptive Dynamic Dehazing via Instruction-Driven and Task-Feedback Closed-Loop Optimization for Diverse Downstream Task Adaptation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.00542/) (2026)
- [Physics-Guided Image Dehazing Diffusion](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.21385/) (2025)
- [CIVQLLIE: Causal Intervention with Vector Quantization for Low-Light Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.03338/) (2025)
- [Clear Roads, Clear Vision: Advancements in Multi-Weather Restoration for Smart Transportation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.09228/) (2025)
- [Rethinking Surgical Smoke: A Smoke-Type-Aware Laparoscopic Video Desmoking Method and Dataset](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.02780/) (2025)
- [Real-World Scene Recovery for Scattering-Degraded Images Using Spatial and Frequency Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.08254/) (2025)
- [API: Empowering Generalizable Real-World Image Dehazing via Adaptive Patch Importance Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.01992/) (2026)
- [Enhancing Underwater Images via Adaptive Semantic-aware Codebook Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.10586/) (2026)
- [Physically-Guided Optical Inversion Enable Non-Contact Side-Channel Attack on Isolated Screens](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.13419/) (2026)
- [Efficient Real-World Dehazing via Physics-Inspired Global-Local Decoupling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.25732/) (2026)
- [Bridging the Gap Between Image Restoration and Navigational Safety in Hazy Conditions: A New Visibility Estimation Metric for Maritime Surveillance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.30049/) (2026)
- [RTE-FM-Dehazer: Radiative Transfer Equation Inspired Flow Matching for Real-World Image Dehazing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.01748/) (2026)
- [CoRe-UIE: Rethinking Coexisting and Region-wise Degradation for Underwater Image Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.08965/) (2026)
- [FireNav: Decision-Oriented Reconstruction Evidence Routing for Vision-Language Navigation in Indoor Fire Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.15595/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We propose a novel Iterative Predictor-Critic Code Decoding framework for real-world image dehazing, abbreviated as IPC-Dehaze, which leverages the high-quality codebook prior encapsulated in a pre-trained VQGAN. Apart from previous codebook-based methods that rely on one-shot decoding, our method utilizes high-quality codes obtained in the previous iteration to guide the prediction of the Code-Predictor in the subsequent iteration, improving code prediction accuracy and ensuring stable dehazing performance. Our idea stems from the observations that 1) the degradation of hazy images varies with haze density and scene depth, and 2) clear regions play crucial cues in restoring dense haze regions. However, it is non-trivial to progressively refine the obtained codes in subsequent iterations, owing to the difficulty in determining which codes should be retained or replaced at each iteration. Another key insight of our study is to propose Code-Critic to capture interrelations among codes. The Code-Critic is used to evaluate code correlations and then resample a set of codes with the highest mask scores, i.e., a higher score indicates that the code is more likely to be rejected, which helps retain more accurate codes and predict difficult ones. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of our method over state-of-the-art methods in real-world dehazing.