  This paper proposes a novel pseudo multi-exposure image fusion method based
on a single image. Multi-exposure image fusion is used to produce images
without saturation regions, by using photos with different exposures. However,
it is difficult to take photos suited for the multi-exposure image fusion when
we take a photo of dynamic scenes or record a video. In addition, the
multi-exposure image fusion cannot be applied to existing images with a single
exposure or videos. The proposed method enables us to produce pseudo
multi-exposure images from a single image. To produce multi-exposure images,
the proposed method utilizes the relationship between the exposure values and
pixel values, which is obtained by assuming that a digital camera has a linear
response function. Moreover, it is shown that the use of a local contrast
enhancement method allows us to produce pseudo multi-exposure images with
higher quality. Most of conventional multi-exposure image fusion methods are
also applicable to the proposed multi-exposure images. Experimental results
show the effectiveness of the proposed method by comparing the proposed one
with conventional ones.
