LALNet (ICML2025)

Abstract:
Learning lighting adaptation is a crucial step in achieving good visual perception and supporting downstream vision tasks. Current research often addresses individual light-related challenges, such as high dynamic range imaging and exposure correction, in isolation. However, we identify shared fundamental properties across these tasks: i) different color channels have different light properties, and ii) the channel differences reflected in the spatial and frequency domains are different. Leveraging these insights, we introduce the channel-aware Learning Adaptive Lighting Network (LALNet), a multi-task framework designed to handle multiple light-related tasks efficiently. Specifically, LALNet incorporates color-separated features that highlight the unique light properties of each color channel, integrated with traditional color-mixed features by Light Guided Attention (LGA). The LGA utilizes color-separated features to guide color-mixed features focusing on channel differences and ensuring visual consistency across all channels. Additionally, LALNet employs dual domain channel modulation for generating color-separated features and a mixed channel modulation and light state space module for producing color-mixed features. Extensive experiments on four representative light-related tasks demonstrate that LALNet significantly outperforms state-of-the-art methods on benchmark tests and requires fewer computational resources.