SMQT-based Tone Mapping Operators for High Dynamic Range Images

In this paper, tone mapping operations based on the nonlinear Successive Mean Quantization Transform (SMQT) are proposed in order to convert high dynamic range images to low dynamic range images. A SMQTbased tone mapping applied on the luminance channel is derived as well as a SMQT-based method working directly on all RGB channels. Both methods are compared to other state-of-the-art methods and produce visually similar results. The processing speeds of the SMQT-based methods are discussed and found to be some of the fastest reported on a single CPU. Furthermore, additional improvement regarding the processing speed and its impact on image quality is investigated.