Image Enhancement

References
1. Gonzalez and Woods, “ Digital Image
Processing,” 2nd Edition, Prentice Hall,
2002.
2. Jahne, “Digital Image Processing,” 5th
Edition, Springer 2002.
3. Jain, “Fundamentals of Digital Image
Processing,” Prentice Hall 1989

03/25/11 2
 Overview
• Human perception (focus of this
discussion)
– Machine perception (ocr)
• Application specific
• Heuristic based: result better than the
original image – subjective assessment
• Spatial vs frequency domain

03/25/11 3
 Spatial Domain
• Based on the collection of pixels in the
image
• Enhancement techniques will yield
– Noise reduction
– Neighborhood smoothing
– Highlighting of desired feature

03/25/11 4
 Spatial Domain – Math Framework

From [1]

Typically, spatial domain based enhancement involves:

g(x,y) = T [f(x,y)],
where f = input image; g = output image; T = operator defined on f based on a neighborhood
of x,y. If the neighborhood is 1x1 pixel, then the output intensity is dependent on the current
intensity value of the pixel, and can be represented as
s = T( r )
where r and s are gray level values of f(x,y) and g(x,y) at location x,y. In such situations T is
a gray-level transformation function.
03/25/11 5
 Examples of Gray level Transformation
Functions (Point Processing)

From [1]

Contrast Stretching Thresholding:

Best if input is 0 Result is a
outside a range of binary Image
values.

03/25/11 6
 Larger Neighborhoods
• Objective – determine g(x,y) based on
input intensity (gray level) values f(x,y) in
the neighborhood of x,y.
– Mask processing or filtering
– Each of the elements in the neighborhood has
an associated weight
– g(x,y) depends on f(a,b)|a,b є N(x,y)

03/25/11 7
 Basic Gray Level Transformations

Light

From [1]
Dark

Dark Light

03/25/11 8
 Image Negatives

From [1]

In this example, using the image negative, it is easier to

analyze the breast tissue.

03/25/11 9
 Log transformations
• s = c log (1 + r)
• r >= 0; hence 1 + r > 0; log 0 = ?
• Log transformations are useful, when there is a large dynamic
range for the input variable ( r ).

From [1]

03/25/11 Range: 0 to 1.5*106 Range: 0 to 6.2 10

 Power law transformation
From [1]
Stretch higher
(lighter) gray levels

Many display devices (e.g.

CRT) respond like the power
law, i.e intensity – voltage
relationship is power law based
gamma 1.8 to 2.5. The display
will tend to produce images
darker than intended. So the
display is distorted. Gamma
correction is used to correct for
this distortion.

Stretch lower
(ldarker) gray levels

03/25/11 11
 Display distortion correction

1. Gamma correction
can also fix the
distortions in color.
2. More important with
the internet.
3. Many viewers, variety
of monitors.
4. Gamma of view
station is not known.
5. Preprocess using an
average gamma.

03/25/11 From [1] 12

 Power law – contrast manipulation
(c) better than (b).
(d) Background is
better than (c) but
washed out effect.

From [1]

03/25/11 13
 Piece-wise Linear Transformation
Contrast Stretching

From [1]

Mean gray level value

03/25/11 of the image 14
 Gray level Slicing

From [1]

03/25/11 15
 Bit plane Slicing

MSb (bit 7)

From [1]

03/25/11 LSb (bit 0)16

 Histograms
• Histogram - frequency of occurrence of a gray level
value
• Normalizing histograms with rest to the total number of
pixels converts these into probability density like function
• Histogram processing yields robust image processing
results
• Histograms are NOT unique

03/25/11 17
 Histograms for 4 images

1. For high contrast, it is best to have a

larger range of gray level values.
2. If we could transform an image with a
resulting change in histogram, then
that may yield more contrast.
3. We need to study the rules for
transforming histograms, and study
the resulting impact on images.

03/25/11 From [1] 18

 Transformation

From [1]
s
Applying transformations to histograms, can use results from
probability. s1
Consider the transformation S = T( r ); 0 <= r <=1 which has the
following properties: r
(a) T( r ) is single-valued and monotonically increasing in [0,1]
(b) 0 <= T( r ) <= 1 for r in [0,1] r
Single valued condition ensures that an inverse transformation
exists, and the monotonic condition ensures the increasing
order of the pixels from black to white.
(a) and (b) do not ensure that the inverse transform is single
valued. s1 s
03/25/11 19
 Histogram Equalization

03/25/11 From [1] 20

 Transformation Functions

From [1]
03/25/11 21
 Mapping for Histogram
Specification

03/25/11
From [1] 22
Example of Histogram Specification

From [1]

03/25/11 23
 Continued

From [1]

03/25/11 24
 Localized Histogram Equalization

From [1]

03/25/11 25
 From [1]

03/25/11 26
 Histogram Stats

From [1]

03/25/11 27