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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO.
3, MARCH 2001
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Transform-Based Image Enhancement Algorithms with Performance Measure

Sos S. Agaian, Member, IEEE, Karen Panetta, Senior Member, IEEE, and Artyom M. Grigoryan, Member, IEEE
AbstractThis paper presents a new class of the frequency domain-based signal/image enhancement algorithms including magnitude reduction, log-magnitude reduction, iterative magnitude and a log-reduction zonal magnitude technique. These algorithms are described and applied for detection and visualization of objects within an image. The new technique is based on the so-called sequency ordered orthogonal transforms, which include the well-known Fourier, Hartley, cosine, and Hadamard transforms, as well as new enhancement parametric operators. A wide range of image characteristics can be obtained from a single transform, by varying the parameters of the operators. We also introduce a quantifying method to measure signal/image enhancement called EME. This helps choose the best parameters and transform for each enhancement. A number of experimental results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithms. Index TermsAlpha-rooting, detection, frequency domain enhancement, magnitude-reduction, sequency ordered transforms, visualization.
Fig. 1. Diagram of the image enhancement with C (p; s).
I. INTRODUCTION T IS well-known that image enhancement is a problem-oriented procedure. The goal of the image enhancement is to improve the visual appearance of the image, or to provide a better transform representation for future automated image processing (analysis, detection, segmentation, and recognition). Many methods have been proposed for image enhancement [11], [13], [14]. A survey of digital image enhancement techniques can be found in [1], [34], [8], [26]. Most of those methods are based on gray-level histogram modifications [11], [12], while other methods are based on local contrast transformation and edge analysis [14], [17], or the global entropy transformation [25]. In all of these methods, there are no general standards for image quality which could be used as a design criteria for image enhancement algorithms. At present, there is no general unifying theory of image enhancement. Methods of image enhancement techniques can be generally classified into two categories: spatial domain methods, which operate directly on pixels, including
Manuscript received August 12, 1999; revised November 14, 2000. This work was supported in part by NASA under Grant NAG8-1311. The associate editor coordinating the review of this manuscript and approving it for publication was Dr. Henri Maitre. S. S. Agaian is with the Division of Engineering, The University of Texas, San Antonio, TX 78249-0669 (e-mail: sagaian@voyager1.eng.utsa.edu). K. Panetta is with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Tufts University, Medford, MA 02155 (e-mail: karen@eecs.tufts.edu). A. M. Grigoryan is with CAMDI Laboratory, Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843-3128 (e-mail: artyom@ee.tamu.edu). Publisher Item Identifier S 1057-7149(01)01662-1.
region-based and rational morphology based, and frequency domain methods. These methods operate on transforms of the image, such as the Fourier, wavelet, and cosine transforms. The basic advantages of transform image enhancement techniques are 1) low complexity of computations and 2) the critical role of the orthogonal transforms in digital signal/image processing, where they are used in different stages of processing such as filtering, coding, recognition, and restoration analysis. Image transforms give the spectral information about an image, by decomposition of the image into spectral coefficients that can be modified (linearly or nonlinearly), for the purposes of enhancement and visualization. The resulting advantage is that it is easy to view and manipulate the frequency composition of the image, without direct reliance on spatial information. In [8], a comparative analysis of transform based image enhancement techniques is given. It includes techniques such as alpha-rooting, modified unsharp masking, and filtering, which are all motivated by the human visual response. The analysis of the existing transform based image enhancement techniques [1], [8], [13], [34]shows that there are the common problems which need to be solved, because 1) such methods introduce certain artifacts (in [8] they called these artifacts objectionable blocking effects); 2) such methods cannot simultaneously enhance all parts of the image very well; 3) it is difficult to select optimal processing parameters, and there is no efficient measure that can be served as a building criterion for image enhancement. Finding a solution to this problem is very important especially when the image enhancement procedure is used as a preprocessing step for other image processing techniques such as detection, recognition, and visualization. It is also important when constructing an adaptive transform based image enhancement technique. The research work presented here offers novel frequency domain based image enhancement methods for object detection and visualization. The new technique is based on the so called sequency ordered [30] orthogonal transforms such as Fourier, Hartley, cosine, and Hadamard transforms and new enhancement operators. A new class of the fast trigonometric systems is used for performing the transform coefficients manipulation operations. A quantitative measure
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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MARCH 2001
Fig. 2. (a) Linear combination of the clock and (b) moon images, which results in (c) an illegible image.
Fig. 3. Enhancement of the original image (a) via -rooting based on the (b) Fourier, (c) Hadamard, and (d) cosine transforms when = 0:92.
of image enhancement is introduced. The technique developed here has been successfully employed on NASAs Earth Observing System satellite data products for the purpose of anomaly detection and visualization. These satellites collect a Tera-byte of data per day, and fast and efficient methods are crucial for analyzing these data.
The paper is organized as follows: In Section I, the sequencyordered transform is briefly described, which will be used for the image enhancement. Then in Section II, we define the so-called sequency ordered orthogonal transform, quantitative measure of signal/image enhancement and, then, describe in general a transform-based image enhancement algorithm. Our first technique
AGAIAN et al.: TRANSFORM-BASED IMAGE ENHANCEMENT ALGORITHMS WITH PERFORMANCE MEASURE
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this task, we can obtain significant computational advantages in signal processing, or more specifically, in the signal enhancement. The one-dimensional (1-D) discrete Fourier transform (1-D DFT) is given by
(1) The inverse 1-D discrete Fourier transform is defined as (2) The Hellers identity Fourier transform pairs as
Fig. 4. The -rooting by the 2-D cosine (from the top to bottom), Hadamard, Fourier, and Hartley transforms.
allows to rewrite the
combines the magnitude and log-magnitude reductions for enhancement. Section III focuses on a number of experiments in order to evaluate the enhancement algorithm. Zonal magnitude reduction methods are given in Section IV, wherein the comparative analysis of transforms based image enhancement algorithms (theoretical and experimental results) are provided. Finally, in Section V, a discussion and some concluding remarks are given. II. BACKGROUND A. Sequency Ordered Systems In this section, we review frequency ordered systems, describe their properties, and introduce a new class of nonsinusoidal sequency ordered systems. The latter can be implemented with low computational complexity. When analyzing signals and systems, it is useful to map data from the time domain into another domain (in our case, the frequency domain). The basic characteristics of a complex wave are the amplitude and phase spectra. Specifying amplitude and phase spectra is an important concept for complex waves. For example, an amplitude spectrum contains information about the energy content of a signal and the distribution of the energy among the different frequencies, which is often used in many applications. To achieve this, the real variable, , is generalized , which then is mapped back via to the complex variable, inverse mapping. For example, the Fourier transform maps the real line (time domain) into the complex plane, or real wave into the complex one. This, however, requires a high complexity in implementation, since it involves complex multiplications and additions. It is obvious to ask the question: Is it possible to construct a discrete orthogonal system which maps a real signal to another real signal while maintaining the advantages of a complex domain? The motivation for this question is that it is often easier and efficient, especially from the standpoint of calculation, to deal with real rather than complex numbers. If we accomplish
(3) Thus, the 1-D Fourier transform maps the time domain signal into the frequency domain. The sum of the cosine products can be defined as the real components of the spectrum, and the sum of the sine products can be defined as the imaginary components of the spectrum. To compute these components, one can use the known algorithms of the fast Fourier transform [1], [34] or by using a new approach, an efficient manageable split algorithm [27] for computing the Fourier and other unitary transforms. We now introduce a new system which has an inverse transform as well as the basic advantages of the complex domain. Definition 1: The rate at which a function crosses the zero-axis is called its sequency (as an analog to frequency). We now investigate the mapping systems, or transforms, which meet the following properties of a special sequency-ordered system. Definition 2: A special sequency-ordered function set is any set of functions, which satisfies the following properties: 1) the transform can be represented in the form of
(4) and are sequency-ordered functions. and respectively can be considered as real and imagi. nary components of the sums It is easy to see that the known orthogonal transforms such as the Hartley, cosine, sine, and Hadamard transforms are the particular cases of the sequency-ordered systems. and , Remark 1: If , then the sequency-ordered system be2)
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Fig. 5. Enhanced images via the -rooting based on the (a)(c) Fourier transform and (d)(f) Hadamard transform.
comes the discrete Hartley transform of a 1-D, discrete real function, , is defined as [3] (7) and , if is Remark 3: If , if is odd, then the sequency-oreven, and dered system becomes the CalSal WalshHadamard transform (C-SWHT). Really, the C-SWHT is defined as (8) where , if ; , if ; denotes the sequency. is the set of the Walsh ordered functions, (9) (6) if (10) Remark 4: A transform definition via a parametric class of trigonometric systems is (11)
(5) . The Hartley transform is simwhere ilar to the Fourier transform, but only generates real coefficients rather than complex ones. , , Remark 2: If , , then the seand quency-ordered system becomes the cosine transform. Really, the discrete cosine transform is determined by the basis functions if
The system
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(a)
(b) Fig. 6. Enhancement by C (p; s) coefficient and Fourier transform. (a) Original image and (b) enhanced images.
where (12) , and . for some constants Properties of these kinds of systems, including the fast algorithms, can be found in [6]. Remark 5: A new class of non sinusoidal function transforms is defined via a parametric class of trigonometric systems as
Given an image of sizes dimensional (2-D) unitary transform
, we consider a two-
(17) sgn sgn (13) , and . for some constants Similar to the Fourier transform, one can define the magnitude and phase of the real transform . The phase associated with is defined as (14) and are respectively the sum of the real and where imaginary components in (11). The magnitude is defined as (15) The power (16) and phase spectra can be recombined to reconstruct completely the . is the set of basis functions where , of the transform , and is a complete set of orthogonal functions. and are coefficients of the transform. It is clear that the magnitude of the sequency-ordered systems are similar to the magnitude of the Fourier transform. This fact points to possibility of construction unified transform based enhancement algorithms for all sequency-ordered systems. In the next section, we will show that the above defined magnitude information provides useful information for object location. B. General Transform-Based Image Enhancement Algorithm Analyzing the existing transform-based enhancement algorithms ( -rooting and magnitude reduction methods [2], [8]), we find a common algorithm, which encompasses all of these techniques. The actual procedure of the signal/image enhancement via an invertible transform consists of the following three steps: Step 1) perform the orthogonal transform; and , Step 2) multiply the transform coefficients, ; by some factor, Step 3) perform the inverse orthogonal transform.
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(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig. 7. Measure of log-enhancement by Fourier, Hadamard, and cosine transforms. (a) Fourier enhancement, (b) difference EME (; ) difference EME (; ) EME (; ), and (d) difference EME (; ) EME (; ).
0 EME
(; ), (c)
The frequency ordered system-based method can be represented as (18) is an operator which could be applied on the comwhere and (particularly, on the modules of bination of the transform coefficients) or could be applied directly to , , these coefficients. For instance, they could be , . Basically, we are interested in the or is an operator of magnitude (see cases cases, when is performed separately on the 14, below) and when coefficients. be the transform coefficients and let the enhanceLet be of the form , where the ment operator latter is a real function of the magnitude of the coefficients, i.e., . must be real because we only wish to alter the magnitude information, not the phase information. In the framework of this constraint, we have several possi, which can offer far greater flexibility: bilities for constant (when the enhancement 1) preserves all constant information);
, (which is the so-called modified -rooting [8]); , , [2]; 3) . 4) the phase of the transform coeffiDenoting by , we can write cient (19) is the magnitude of the coefficients. Rather than where directly on the transform apply the enhancement operator , we will investigate the operator which is coefficients applied on the modules of the transform coefficients, (20) takes one We assume the enhancement operator , , at every point of the forms . is used in In practice, the coefficient for image enhancement. The optimal value of is image dependent and should be adjusted interactively by the user [8]. For simplicity of our reasonings, we will assume that in definition
2)
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Fig. 8. (a) Original image and (b)(d) 2-D Fourier transform enhancements when operating with C coefficients for (; ) equal respectively to (0.05, 0.05), (1.9, 0.05), (0.05, 0.9), and (1.9, 0.9).
of the coefficients we have . One can ask: What are the optimal values of , , and ? Can one choose , , and automatically? What is the best enhancement frequency ordered system? What is the optimal size of the transform, ? Remark 6: The above approach can be used 1) on the whole image, or via blockwise processing with block sizes 8, 16, 32, and 64 and 2) on some low-pass or high-pass filtered image. As an example, one can see in Fig. 1 that an original image can be divided first into a low-pass image and high-pass . The high-pass image is enhanced by multiplication image and then recombined with the low-pass image [see by ]. also [26], [8], when using the coefficient C. Performance Measure of Enhancement In this section, we present a new quantitative measure of image enhancement. The improvement in images after enhancement is often very difficult to measure. A processed image can be said to have been enhanced over the original image if it allows the observer to
better perceive the desirable information in the imaging. In images, the improved perception is difficult to qualify. There is no universal measure which can specify both the objective and subjective validity of the enhancement method [16]. In practice, many definitions of the contrast measure are used [12], [16], [17]. For example, the local contrast proposed by Gordon and Rangayan was defined by the mean gray values in two rectangular windows centered on a current pixel. Baghdan and Negrate [17] proposed another definition of the local contrast based on the local edge information of the image, in order to improve the first mentioned definition. In [17], the local contrast method proposed by Beghdadi and Negrate has been adopted, in order to define a performance measure of enhancement. Use of statistical measures of gray level distribution measures of local contrast enhancement (for example, mean, variance or entropy) have not been particularly meaningful for mammogram images. A number of images, which clearly illustrated an improved contrast, showed no consistency, as a class, when using these statistical measurements. A measure proposed in [12], which has greater consistency than the statistical measures, is based on the contrast histogram.
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(a)
(b)
(c)
(d)
Fig. 9. Fourier enhancement via log-reduction when coefficients ( ) are calculated for one fixed parameter. (a) Surface of the enhancement measure ( 0 8), (b) image of the enhancement measure, (c) surface of the enhancement ( = 0 8), and (d) surface of the enhancement measure ( = 0 9).
C p; s
Intuitively, it seems reasonable to expert that a image enhancement measure values at given pixels should depend strongly on the values at pixels that are close by weekly on those that are further away and also this measure has to related with human visual system. In our definition, we use a modification of Webers and Fechners laws. In [31], Weber established a visual law, argued that the human visual detection
depends on the ratio, rather than difference, between the light and . The Weber intensity value definition of contrast was used to measure the local contrast of a single object. (One usually assumes a large background with a small test object, in which case the average luminance will be close to the background luminance. If there are many objects this assumption do not hold.) Fechners law [32] proposed the
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following relationship between the light intensity brightness:
and
(21) is a constant, and are the absolute where threshold and upper threshold of the human eye [33]. Below, a new quantitative measure of image enhancement is presented. be split into blocks of Let an image , and let , , and are fixed enhancement paramesizes of orthogonal ters (or, vector parameter). For a given class as transforms, we define a value follows:
(a)
(22)
(23) and respectively are the minwhere inside the block imum and maximum of the image , after processing the block by transform based enhance, ment algorithm. The function is the sign function, , depending on the method of enhancement under or the consideration. The decision to add this function has been done after studying various examples of enhancement by trans, form methods using the different coefficients . This will be demonstrated in the following sections. is called a measure of enhancement, or Definition 3: measure of improvement. Definition 4: The best (optimal) transform relative to the such that measure of enhancement is called a transform . The image enhancement algorithm based on this transform is called an optimal image improvement transform-based enhancement algorithm. Selection of Parameters: Suppose the transform based en, and , hancement algorithm depends on the parameters , i.e., . or vector be the best (optimal) transform. The Definition 5: Let best (optimal) -transform-based enhancement image vector such that parameter is called a parameter . It should be noted that the window size can be also included in the vector as a parameter of optimal enhancement. In the next section, the following problems are investigated. How to design the best transform-based image enhancement algorithm, and how to design the best -transform-based en? hancement image vector parameter III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS In this section, we perform a number of experiments in order to evaluate the enhancement algorithm for 1-D and 2-D signals. For more clarity/visibility, we demonstrate the experimental results for 2-D signals such as the moon plus clock image.
(b)
C (p; s) are calculated for fixed = 0:8. (a) Surface of the enhancement measure ( = 0:8) and (b) image of the enhancement measure.
In our test cases, we use three classes of algorithms, namely, the transform based enhancement algorithms via the operators , , and respectively. We also present the above mentioned iterative algorithm. For each of the cases, we present two classes of experiments. The first class shows how to choose the best operator parameter (or, the best enhancement algorithm) for the given transform. The second class shows how to choose the best image enhancement transform for the given image. A quantitative comparison of the methods is also presented below. In order to enhance our images before passing them through a visualization algorithm, we reduce the magnitude information of the image while leaving the phase information intact. Since the phase information is much more significant than the magnitude information in the determination of edges, reducing the magnitude produces better edge detection capabilities. This method also tends to reduce the low-frequency components rather than the high-frequency components (both the low-frequency components, which are associated with sharp edges, and high-frequency components, which are associated with the edge elements). , and The clock image was taken as the original, then the moon image was superimposed with it. This results , is in an illegible image, as shown in Fig. 2. The result, an enhanced image, which can now be passed through a visualization algorithm. Case 1: Transform based enhancement algorithm via oper. ator
Fig. 10.
Hadamard enhancement via log-reduction when coefficients
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Fig. 11. Two-dimensional Fourier enhancement of the image (a) via the operator and the histograms (d)(f) of the images (a)(c), respectively.
O with coefficients C , (b), and C , (c), when = 0:8, = 1:5, and = 0:8,
The enhancement measure of the original image shown in Fig. 2 is 4.5, or , where is the identical transform. Fig. 4 shows four curves which describe the measure of the enhancement, when applying the Fourier, Hadamard, cosine, and Hartley transforms. We see that on the whole interval, where varies, the maximal measure of enhancement is provided mostly by the cosine and Hadamard transforms. The and , curves have two maximums, at points where the maximum measure is provided by the Fourier transform (The best transform among the above transforms). The experimental results show that the parameter corresponds to the best visual estimation of enhancement. The enhancement by the transforms are very close between these two extreme points. Case 2: Transform based enhancement algorithm via oper. ator Test 2.1Choosing the Best Operator Parameter: Fig. 5 illustrates the enhanced images by varying parameter , when using the Fourier transform, (a)(c), and the Hadamard, (d)(f). serves to enhance The log-magnitude reduction using the edges around regions in the image. Fig. 6 demonstrates the practical application of the proposed method on the images obtained by NASAs Earth Observing System satellites. Test 2.2Choosing the Best Image Enhancement Transform for the Given Image: Fig. 7 illustrates the measure of the
Test 1.1Choosing the Best Operator Parameter: This case is known as modified -rooting or root filtering [8]. When equals to zero, only the phase is retained. When , the amplitude of the large transform coefficients are reduced relative to the amplitude of the small coefficients, and the result is enhanced edges and details in the image. Since most of the edge information is contained in the high-frequency region of the spectrum, the edges are enhanced by this method. By varying the -level of the reduced image, we are able to enhance the quality of our images for the visualization. Fig. 3(a)(c), illustrates the process of enhancement of the image when the and the Fourier, Hadamard, and cosine parameter transforms are used. As we see in the above examples, the served to sharpen the image magnitude reduction using as well as even out the brightness throughout the image. The results of the visualization algorithms will be more accurate because they will be operating on these enhanced images. They will also be less dependent on magnitude variations based on magnification and blurring, therefore making it much easier to set a thresholding constant, which need not change from image to image. Test 1.2Choosing the Best Image Enhancement Transform be identical to after for the Given Image: Let the normalization by a constant.
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Fig. 12. Two-dimensional Fourier transform enhancement of (a) the original image and (b)(d) results of the enhancement, respectively, for the coefficients C , C , and C with = 0:9, = 1:5, and = 0:8.
image enhancement by using different transforms and varying and respectively in the intervals and parameters . Fig. 7(a) shows the surface of the measure for the Fourier method and (c) and (d) show the differences between the measures when the Fourier, Hadamard, and cosine transforms are used for enhancement. The results of the Fourier transform based image enhancement are shown in Fig. 8, for the boundary parameters. The large values of lead to the elimination of the higher frequencies on the image spectrum, and the operator works as the filter of low frequencies. Contrarily, the small values of increase the image enhancement. Test 2.3Comparison: To illustrate the above method of enhancement, consider Fig. 9. Fig. 9 depicts the surfaces of mea, when one of the parameters is fixed. sure Case 3: Transform based enhancement algorithm via oper. ator Test 3.1Choosing the Best Operator Parammagnitude eter: Combining the magnitude reduction and accomplishes both the reduction methods in sharpening and edge enhancements for a given image. In our with and to experiments, we found
Fig. 13. Curves of the Fourier enhancement (a), (b), and (c), by two zones, when using the coefficients C , C , and C , respectively.
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Fig. 14.
Curve of the Fourier enhancement by (a) two zones and (b)(d) results of enhancement when radius of the first zone is 32, 64, and 127, respectively.
be the optimal magnitude reduction operator on the image. Fig. 9 illustrates the surface of the enhancement measure for and , when the Fourier transform based enhancement image algorithm is used. Fig. 10 illustrates the , when the surface of the enhancement measure for similar Hadamard transform algorithm is applied. Test 3.2Choosing the Best Image Enhancement Transform: We face the problem of selecting the optimal orthogonal transform for our application. Since our goal is to achieve maximum accuracy in the detection of regions of interest as well maximize computational speed, we must balance these two factors and make a selection that is appropriate for our application. Therefore, we analyzed the quality of the results and the execution time for each of these orthogonal transform algorithms. Test 3.3Comparison: An enlarged example of the proposed optimal magnitude reduction is shown in Fig. 11(a), when using the Fourier transform (b) and comparing with -rooting (c). The histograms (d)(f) show how the range of intensities differ, when using the different coefficients for the enhancement. The measure of enhancement is 9.84 and and for 7.80 when using respectively the coefficients
enhancement of the image. Fig. 12 illustrates for comparison the outputs of the 2-D Fourier transform enhancement for all three methods under consideration. One can see that the maximum measure of enhancement and best visual estimate occurs when using the coefficient . All further references to the magnitude reduction algorithm will be to this specific combination of magnitude reductions. It should be noted, that from standpoint of information theory, the probability distribution, which conveys the most information, is perfectly uniform [11]. Therefore, if we could obtain as uniform a histogram as possible, the image information could be maximized. A. Iterative Transform Based Image Enhancement Algorithm We now discuss briefly an algorithm via the magnitude reduction approach. Naturally, one wonders if it is possible to further enhance the image. Since the proposed magnitude reduction method works well at enhancing the edge information of the image, a second pass through the magnitude reduction algorithm might serve to further enhance the image. We have implemented this iterative enhancement method and experimented with it using various magnitude reduction coefficients, in order
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Fig. 15.
Two-dimensional Fourier enhancement for two zones ( = 16).
to find the optimal values for this configuration. The goal is to find the optimal iteration parameters. We propose the following algorithm for iterative transform based image enhancement: 1) perform the orthogonal transform; 2) multiply the transform coefficients by some factors 3) repeat step 2 for several iterations, while varying coefficients 4) perform the inverse orthogonal transform. IV. ZONAL TRANSFORM BASED ENHANCEMENT METHODS The classical transform based image enhancement techniques are performed uniformly over the entire frequency spectrum. As an expansion of these kinds of techniques, we propose varying the transform based image enhancement within radially concentric zones. The motivation of using zones comes from the fact that: a very short transform coefficient length corresponds to the homogenous image blocks, a medium transform coefficient length corresponds to the texture, and a long transform coefficient length corresponds to the highly active image blocks. By using this method, we achieve much more flexibility and control over the magnitude reductions in different regions within the frequency domain. By using increasingly greater reductions in higher frequencies, we manage to attenuate the high-frequency noise component of the
image. At the same time, we also maintain the edge enhancing effects of the magnitude reduction algorithm. We now demonstrate zonal transform based image enhancement via a few examples. For this, we describe the transform based image enhancement algorithm (including iterative algorithm) with two and three zones. It should be noted that, in the case considered above, we have used one zone. In order to accomplish this method, we first have to find the maximum and minimum values within the frequency domain data. Then, using these maximum and minimum points as end-markers, we divide the frequency domain into regions based on each points magnitude distance from the maximum and minimum. We set distance dividers between the maximum and minimum points, which divide the frequency domain into regions. Each region has the specified magnitude reduction value, , and log-magnitude reduction value, . We next determine the four pairs of and values, as well as three values of the distance to specify our magnitude reductions. These values can be determined by means of the enhancement measure. Case 4: Transform based image enhancement algorithms and . with two zones, can be defined by a) The enhancement operator
if (24) if
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Fig. 16.
Two-dimensional Hadamard enhancement for two zones ( = 16).
Remark 7: The zone has to be very small and coefficient has to be near to zero or zero. b) The enhancement can be defined by operator
ages. A lot of details, that could not been seen in the test image, have been clearly revealed. c) The enhancement operator can be defined by if if , (26)
if if where ,
(25)
where magnitude of the transform image;, thresholding operator; very small constant (or, zero). is defined as , where and are real functions and is a coefficient (or, a zero, frequency component). For instance, and . when Figs. 15 and 16 illustrate the examples of the image enhancement by using the Fourier and Hadamard transforms and two and parameter takes values zones. The threshold is 0.5, 0.6, 0.7, 0.8, and 1. Case 5: Transform Based Image Enhancement Algorithms with Three Zones. can be defined by The enhancement operator if if if (27)
is a constant (which can be the mean of all , ), , where is the size of the ). input signal, , , and are constants (and As examples, Fig. 13 illustrates the curves of the enhancement measure for images, by using two zones and the Fourier transform based enhancement method for the different operators , a), , b), and , c), for the parameters , , and . The varying parameter for the curves is the radius of the first zone by which the area of the Fourier spectrum is divided; the second zone is the rest of the area. Fig. 13 shows that when radius of the zone increases, the measure of image enhancement grows faster when using the , than . coefficient Fig. 14 illustrates the example of the image enhancement by two zones with varying radius-parameter . As can be observed from the experimental results, the proposed algorithm effectively enhances the overall contrast and sharpness of the test im-
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This is a typical contrast stretching transform, which has to be applied in the frequency domain (see [13, pp. 235237]).
V. CONCLUSION A new class of frequency domain based signal/image enhancement algorithms (magnitude reduction, log-magnitude reduction, iterative magnitude, and log-reduction zonal magnitude techniques) have been described and applied for detection and visualization on objects within an image. The new techniques are based on the so-called sequency ordered orthogonal transforms, which include the well-known fast orthogonal Fourier, Hartley, cosine, and Hadamard transforms, as well as new enhancement parametric operators. We have improved upon the current magnitude reduction techniques and developed an entirely novel method. The wide range of characteristics can be obtained from a single transform by varying enhancement parameters. A quantitative measure of signal/image enhancement was presented, which demonstrated the optimal method to automatically choose the best parameters and transform. The proposed algorithms are simple to apply and design, which makes them practical. A number of experimental results were given which illustrate the performance of these algorithms. The comparative analysis of transforms based image enhancement algorithms has been described, too. Lastly, the comparison of the Fourier transform and Walsh, cosine and Hartley transforms was given. We find that for a negligible tradeoff of accuracy, one can use the Walsh transform to achieve significantly higher performance enhancement. For our purposes, where speed is a major concern, the proposed method turns out to be a dramatic improvement over existing methods. We have also proposed the zonal transform based image enhancement algorithms.
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[14] T. L. Ji, M. K. Sundareshan, and H. Roehrig, Adaptive image contrast enhancement based on human visual properties, IEEE Trans. Med. Imag., vol. 13, pp. 573586, Dec. 1994. [15] N. Netravali and Presada, Adaptive quantization of picture signals using spatial masking, Proc. IEEE, vol. 65, no. 4, pp. 536548, 1977. [16] J. K. Kim, J. M. Park, K. S. Song, and H.W. Park, Adaptive mammographic image enhancement using first derivative and local statistics, IEEE Trans. Med. Imag., vol. 16, pp. 495502, Oct. 1997. [17] A. Beghcladi and A. L. Negrate, Contrast enhancement technique based on local detection of edges, Comput. Vis., Graph., Image Process., vol. 46, pp. 162274, 1989. [18] D.-C. Chang and W.-R. Wu, Image contrast enhancement based on a histogram transformation of local standard deviation, IEEE Trans. Med. Imag., vol. 17, pp. 518531, Aug. 1998. [19] G. X. Ritter and J. N. Wilson, Handbook of Computer Vision Algorithms in Image Algebra. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1996. [20] J. B. Zimmerman, S. M. Pizer, E. V. Staab, J. R. Perry, W. McCartney, and B. C. Brenton, An evaluation of the effectiveness of adaptive histogram equalization for contrast enhancement, IEEE Trans. Med. Imag., vol. 7, pp. 304312, Dec. 1988. [21] R. Gonzalez and Wintz, Digital Image Processing, 2nd ed. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1987. [22] D. Ballard and C. Brown, Computer Vision. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1982. [23] J. Harris, Constant variance enhancement: A digital processing technique, Appl. Opt., vol. 16, pp. 12681271, May 1977. [24] P. Natendra and Rithch, Real-time adaptive contrast enhancement, IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Machine Intell., vol. PAMI-3, pp. 655661, Nov. 1981. [25] A. Khellaf, A. Beghdadi, and H. Dupoiset, Entropic contrast enhancement, IEEE Trans. Med. Imag., vol. 10, pp. 589592, Dec. 1991. [26] D. Wang and A. H. Vagnucci, Digital image enhancement, Comput. Vis., Graph., Image Process., vol. 24, pp. 363381, 1981. [27] A. M. Grigoryan and S. S. Agaian, Split manageable efficient algorithm for Fourier and Hadamard transforms, IEEE Trans. Signal Processing, vol. 48, pp. 172183, Jan. 2000. [28] J. A. Saghri, P. S. Cheatham, and H. Habibi, Image quality measure based on a human visual system model, Opt. Eng., vol. 28, no. 7, 1989. [29] H. S. How and D. R. Tretter, Frequency characterization of the discrete cosine transform, Proc. SPIE, vol. 1349, pp. 3142, 1990. [30] H. F. Harmuth, Applications of Walsh function in communications, IEEE Spectrum, pp. 8242, 1969. [31] I. E. Gordon, Theory of Visual Perception. New York: Wiley, 1989. [32] G. T. Fechner, Elements of Psychophysics. New York: Rinehart & Winston, 1960, vol. 1. [33] L. E. Krueger, Reconciling Fechner and Stevens: Toward an unified psychophysical law, Behav. Brain Sci., vol. 12, pp. 251320, 1989. [34] S. S. Agaian, Advances and Problems of Fast Orthogonal Transform for Signal/Image Processing Applications. Moscow, Russia: Nauka, 1991, pp. 99145.
Sos S. Agaian (M85) received the M.S. degree in mathematics and mechanics from Yerevan State University, Armenia, the Ph.D. degree in mathematics and physics from Steklov Institute of Mathematics, Academy of Sciences, Moscow, Russia, and the Doctor of Industrial Sciences degree from Computer Center, Academy of Sciences, USSR in 1985. He also received the Full Professor Diploma from the Supreme Attestation Board, USSR, in 1986. He was a Visiting Professor with the Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Tufts University, Medford, MA, from 1993 to 1997. He was Senior Scientist with AWARE, Inc., from 1996 to 1997. He erved as a Chairman of the Department of Digital Signal Processing, National Academy of Sciences of Armenia, from 1979 to 1993. In 1997, he joined the Division of Engineering, University of Texas, San Antonio, where he is currently an Associate Professor. He is the author of three books and 11 inventions and has written more than 185 papers on orthogonal and logical transforms, with application on compression, filtering, and recognition. His current research interests include signal and image processing, computer vision, visual communication, and applied mathematics.
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Karen Panetta (SM95) received the B.S. degree in computer engineering from Boston University, Boston, MA, and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from Northeastern University, Boston. She is an Assistant Professor of electrical engineering and computer science at Tufts University, Medford, MA. Her research interests include visualization of complex data sets, fault simulation, large system simulation, and behavioral modeling. She is currently a NASA JOVE Fellow for the NASA Langley Research Center. Her research has been supported by Compaq, Intel, Analog Devices and, most recently, the NSF CAREER award. She holds two patents in developing discrete-event simulation methodologies and algorithms. Dr. Panetta is Faculty Advisor for the student chapter of IEEE at Tufts University and a Member of ACM and the Society for Computer Simulation.
Artyom M. Grigoryan (S78M99) received the M.S degrees in mathematics from Yerevan State University, Armenia, in 1978, imaging science from Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology, Moscow, Russia, in 1980, and electrical engineering from Texas A&M University, College Station, in 1999, and the Ph.D. degree in mathematics and physics from Yerevan State University, Armenia, in 1990. From 1990 to 1996, he was a Senior Researcher with the Department of Signal and Image Processing, Institute for Problems of Informatics and Automation, and Yerevan State University, Academy Science of Armenia. In 1996, he joined the Department of Electrical Engineering, Texas A&M University, where he is currently a Research Engineer. He holds one patent in the development of the automated 3-D fluorescent in situ hybridization spot counting on tissue microarrays. He is author of 40 papers and specializes in the design of robust nonlinear and linear optimal filters, linear filtration, theory of fast one-dimensional and multidimensional unitary transforms, and processing the fluorescent images.

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IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO.

Transform-Based Image Enhancement Algorithms with Performance Measure

Fig. 1. Diagram of the image enhancement with C (p; s).

10577149/01$10.00 2001 IEEE

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MARCH 2001

AGAIAN et al.: TRANSFORM-BASED IMAGE ENHANCEMENT ALGORITHMS WITH PERFORMANCE MEASURE

allows to rewrite the

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MARCH 2001

AGAIAN et al.: TRANSFORM-BASED IMAGE ENHANCEMENT ALGORITHMS WITH PERFORMANCE MEASURE

Given an image of sizes dimensional (2-D) unitary transform

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MARCH 2001

AGAIAN et al.: TRANSFORM-BASED IMAGE ENHANCEMENT ALGORITHMS WITH PERFORMANCE MEASURE

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MARCH 2001

AGAIAN et al.: TRANSFORM-BASED IMAGE ENHANCEMENT ALGORITHMS WITH PERFORMANCE MEASURE

following relationship between the light intensity brightness:

Hadamard enhancement via log-reduction when coefficients

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MARCH 2001

AGAIAN et al.: TRANSFORM-BASED IMAGE ENHANCEMENT ALGORITHMS WITH PERFORMANCE MEASURE

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MARCH 2001

AGAIAN et al.: TRANSFORM-BASED IMAGE ENHANCEMENT ALGORITHMS WITH PERFORMANCE MEASURE

Two-dimensional Fourier enhancement for two zones ( = 16).

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MARCH 2001

Two-dimensional Hadamard enhancement for two zones ( = 16).

AGAIAN et al.: TRANSFORM-BASED IMAGE ENHANCEMENT ALGORITHMS WITH PERFORMANCE MEASURE

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON IMAGE PROCESSING, VOL. 10, NO. 3, MARCH 2001

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