How do we remove illumination noise?

computer-vision, image-processing, opencv, visual-c++

Solution

maybe try to convert the image to HSV then filter high V amounts

IplImage imgHSV = cvCreateImage(cvGetSize(imgInput), 8, 3);
IplImage imgThreshold = cvCreateImage(cvGetSize(imgHSV), 8, 1);
cvInRangeS(imgHSV, cvScalar(0, 0, 90, 0), cvScalar(0, 0, 100, 0), imgThreshold);

..adjust scalars as needed to remove glare

Problem

I have a car detecting project in OpenCV2.3.1 and visual C++. In foreground segmentation, there's reflections due to illumination. And this (reflections) become part of the foreground after the background has been removed. I need suggestions or ideas on how to remove this noise. As it causes some foreground objects to be connected up as one object, like seen when using findContours and drawContours functions. See image parts highlighted in red on attached image. I think this will simplify the blob detection stage. *note - I am not allowed to use built-in cvBlobLib in OpenCV

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