04 Unit4 PDF

Digital Image Processing Unit 4
Sikkim Manipal University Page No. 58

Unit 4 Image Enhancement
Structure
4.1 Introduction
Objective
4.2 Contrast Manipulation
Amplitude Scaling
4.3 Histogram Modification
4.4 Noise Cleaning
Linear Noise Cleaning
Non Linear Noise Cleaning
4.5 Edge Crispening
Linear Technique
Statistical Differencing
4.6 Color Image Enhancement
Natural Color Image enhancement
Pseudo Color
False Color
4.7 Multispectral Image Enhancement
4.8 Summary
4.9 Terminal questions
4.10 Answers
4.1 Introduction
In the previous unit we studied representation of digital images and dealt
with basic aspects of pixel and image operations on pixels. The focus was
on sampling and quantization in representing the image digitally. Continuing
with this, we now focus on the image enhancement. Image enhancement
processes improve the visual appearance of an image. There is no general
unifying theory of image enhancement at present because there is no
general standard of image quality that can serve as a design criterion for an
image enhancement processor. The emphasis will be on studying these
different techniques.

Objectives
By the end of this unit you will understand:
Contrast manipulation using amplitude scaling.
Histogram modification technique
Methods for noise cleaning.
Linear edge crispening technique.
Image enhancement techniques for color images
Multispectral image enhancement

4.2 Contrast Manipulation
Poor contrast of photographic or electronic images is a common thing and
one of the most common defects results from a reduced, and perhaps
nonlinear, image amplitude range. Image contrast can often be improved by
amplitude rescaling of each pixel.
Fig. 4.1 illustrates a transfer function for contrast enhancement of a typical
continuous amplitude low-contrast image. For continuous amplitude images,
the transfer function operator can be implemented by photographic
techniques, but it is often difficult to realize an arbitrary transfer function
accurately. For quantized amplitude images, implementation of the transfer
function is a relatively simple task. However, in the design of the transfer
function operator, consideration must be given to the effects of amplitude
quantization.

Figure 4.1: Continuous image contrast enhancement

With reference to Fig. 4.2, suppose that an original image is quantized to J
levels, but it occupies a smaller range. The output image is also assumed to
be restricted to J levels, and the mapping is linear. In the mapping strategy,
the output level chosen is that level closest to the exact mapping of an input
level. It is obvious from the diagram that the output image will have
unoccupied levels within its range, and some of the gray scale transitions
will be larger than in the original image. The latter effect may result in
noticeable gray scale contouring. If the output image is quantized to more
levels than the input image, it is possible to approach a linear placement of
output levels, and hence, decrease the gray scale contouring effect.

Figure 4.2: Quantized image contrast enhancement
4.2.1 Amplitude Scaling
A digitally processed image may occupy a range different from the range of
the original image. In fact, the numerical range of the processed image may
encompass negative values, which cannot be mapped directly into a light
intensity range. There are several possibilities of scaling an output image
back into the domain of values occupied by the original image.
By the first technique as shown in Fig 4.3 (a), the processed image is
linearly mapped over its entire range. Fig. 4.3 illustrates the amplitude
scaling of the Q component of the YIQ transformation of a monochrome
image containing negative pixels. Fig. 4.3(b) presents the result of amplitude
scaling with the linear function of Fig. 4.3(a) over the amplitude range of the
image. In this example, the most negative pixels are mapped to black (0.0),
and the most positive pixels are mapped to white (1.0).

Figure 4.3 (a): Linear image scaling (b) Example [full range, 0.147 to 0.169]
In the second technique shown in Fig. 4.4 (a), the extreme amplitude values
of the processed image are clipped to maximum and minimum limits. The
second technique is often subjectively preferable, especially for images in
which a relatively small number of pixels exceed the limits. Contrast
enhancement algorithms often possess an option to clip a fixed percentage
of the amplitude values on each end of the amplitude scale. In medical
image enhancement applications, the contrast modification operation shown
in Fig. 4.4(a), for a0, is called a window-level transformation. The window
value is the width of the linear slope, b - a ; the level is located at the
midpoint c of the slope line. Amplitude scaling in which negative value pixels
are clipped to zero is shown in Fig. 4.4(b). The black regions of the image
correspond to negative pixel values of the Q component.

Fig. 4.4 (a): Linear image scaling with clipping
(b) Example [Clipping, 0.000 to 0.169]
The third technique of amplitude scaling, shown in Fig. 4.5(a), utilizes an
absolute value transformation for visualizing an image with negatively
valued pixels. This is a useful transformation for systems that utilize the
two's complement numbering convention for amplitude representation. In
such systems, if the amplitude of a pixel overshoots +1.0 (maximum
luminance white) by a small amount, it wraps around by the same amount to
1.0, which is also maximum luminance white. Similarly, pixel undershoots
remain near black. Absolute value scaling is presented in Fig. 4.5(b).


Figure 4.5 (a) Absolute value scaling
(b) Example [Absolute value, 0.000 to 0.169]

4.3 Histogram Modification
The luminance histogram of a typical natural scene that has been linearly
quantized is usually highly skewed toward the darker levels; a majority of
the pixels possess a luminance less than the average. In such images,
detail in the darker regions is often not perceptible. One means of
enhancing these types of images is a technique called histogram
modification, in which the original image is rescaled so that the histogram of
the enhanced image follows some desired form. Andrews, Hall and others
have produced enhanced imagery by a histogram equalization process for
which the histogram of the enhanced image is forced to be uniform.
Fig. 4.6 gives an example of histogram equalization. In the figure, H
F
(c) for
c = 1, 2, ... C, represents the fractional number of pixels in an input image
whose amplitude is quantized to the cth reconstruction level.

Figure 4.6: Approximate gray level histogram equalization with unequal
number of quantization levels.
Histogram equalization seeks to produce an output image field G by point
rescaling such that the normalized gray-level histogram H
G
(d) = 1 D for
d = 1, 2,..., D. In the example shown in Fig. 4.6, the number of output levels
is set at one-half of the number of input levels.
The scaling algorithm is developed as follows. The average value of the
histogram is computed. Then, starting at the lowest gray level of the original,
the pixels in the quantization bins are combined until the sum is closest to
the average. All of these pixels are then rescaled to the new first
reconstruction level at the midpoint of the enhanced image first quantization
bin. The process is repeated for higher-value gray levels. If the number of
reconstruction levels of the original image is large, it is possible to rescale
the gray levels so that the enhanced image histogram is almost constant. It
should be noted that the number of reconstruction levels of the enhanced
image must be less than the number of levels of the original image to
provide proper gray scale redistribution if all pixels in each quantization level
are to be treated similarly. This process results in a somewhat larger
quantization error. It is possible to perform the gray scale histogram
equalization process with the same number of gray levels for the original
and enhanced images, and still achieve a constant histogram of the
enhanced image, by randomly redistributing pixels from input to output
quantization bins.
Fig. 4.6 provides an example of histogram equalization for an x-ray of a
projectile. The original image and its histogram are shown in Fig. 4.6 (a) and
(b). In the histogram equalized result of Fig. 4.7 (a) and (b), ablating material
from the projectile, not seen in the original, is clearly visible. Histogram
equalization usually performs best on images with detail hidden in dark
regions. Good quality originals are often degraded by histogram
equalization.

Figure 4.6 (a): Original image (b) Original image histogram

Figure 4.7 (a): Enhanced image (b) Enhanced image histogram

4.4 Noise Cleaning
An image may be subject to noise and interference from several sources,
including electrical sensor noise, photographic grain noise and channel
errors. Image noise arising from a noisy sensor or channel transmission
errors usually appears as discrete isolated pixel variations that are not
spatially correlated. Pixels that are in error often appear visually to be
markedly different from their neighbors.
4.4.1 Linear Noise Cleaning
Noise added to an image generally has a higher-spatial-frequency spectrum
than the normal image components because of its spatial decorrelatedness.
Hence, simple low-pass filtering can be effective for noise cleaning. We will
now disucss convolution method of noise cleaning.
A spatially filtered output image G(j,k) can be formed by discrete convolution
of an input image F(m,n) with a L * L impulse response array H(j,k)
according to the relation
G(j,k)= F(m,n) H(m+j+C, n+k+C) where C=(L+1)/2 [Eq 4.8]
For noise cleaning, H should be of low-pass form, with all positive elements.
Several common pixel impulse response arrays of low-pass form are used
and two such forms are given below.

These arrays, called noise cleaning masks, are normalized to unit weighting
so that the noise-cleaning process does not introduce an amplitude bias in
the processed image.
Another linear noise cleaning technique Homomorphic Filtering.
Homomorphic filtering (16) is a useful technique for image enhancement
when an image is subject to multiplicative noise or interference. Fig. 4.9
describes the process.


Figure 4.9: Homomorphic Filtering
The input image F(j,k) is assumed to be modeled as the product of a noise-
free image S(j,k) and an illumination interference array I(j,k). Thus,
F(j,k) = S(j,k) I(j,k)
Taking the logarithm yields the additive linear result
log{F(j, k)} = log{I(j, k)} + log{S(j, k)
Conventional linear filtering techniques can now be applied to reduce the log
interference component. Exponentiation after filtering completes the
enhancement process
4.4.2 Non Linear Noise Cleaning
The linear processing techniques described previously perform reasonably
well on images with continuous noise, such as additive uniform or Gaussian
distributed noise. However, they tend to provide too much smoothing for
impulse like noise. Nonlinear techniques often provide a better trade-off
between noise smoothing and the retention of fine image detail.
Median filtering is a nonlinear signal processing technique developed that is
useful for noise suppression in images. In one-dimensional form, the median
filter consists of a sliding window encompassing an odd number of pixels.
The center pixel in the window is replaced by the median of the pixels in the
window. The median of a discrete sequence a1, a2,..., aN for N odd is that
member of the sequence for which (N 1)/2 elements are smaller or equal
in value and (N 1)/2 elements are larger or equal in value. For example, if
the values of the pixels within a window are 0.1, 0.2, 0.9, 0.4, 0.5, the center
pixel would be replaced by the value 0.4, which is the median value of the
sorted sequence 0.1, 0.2, 0.4, 0.5, 0.9. In this example, if the value 0.9 were
a noise spike in a monotonically increasing sequence, the median filter
would result in a considerable improvement. On the other hand, the value
0.9 might represent a valid signal pulse for a wideband width sensor, and
the resultant image would suffer some loss of resolution. Thus, in some
cases the median filter will provide noise suppression, while in other cases it
will cause signal suppression.
4.5 Edge Crispening
Psychophysical experiments indicate that a photograph or visual signal with
accentuated or crispened edges is often more subjectively pleasing than an
exact photometric reproduction. We will discuss Linear and Statistical
differencing technique for edge crispening.
4.5.1 Linear Edge Crispening
Edge crispening can be performed by discrete convolution, as defined by
Eq. 4.8 in which the impulse response array H is of high-pass form. Several
common high-pass masks are given below

These masks possess the property that the sum of their elements is unity, to
avoid amplitude bias in the processed image. Figure 4.10 provides example
of edge crispening on a monochrome image with mask 2.

4.10 (a): Original 4.10 (b): Mask 2

4.5.2 Statistical Differencing
Statistical differencing involves the generation of an image by dividing each
pixel value by its estimated standard deviation D( j, k) according to the basic
relation
G( j, k) = F( j, k) / D( j, k)
where the estimated standard deviation

is computed at each pixel over some W * W neighborhood where W = 2w + 1.
The function M(j,k) is the estimated mean value of the original image at
point (j, k), which is computed as

The enhanced image G(j,k) is increased in amplitude with respect to the
original at pixels that deviate significantly from their neighbors, and is
decreased in relative amplitude elsewhere.

4.6 Color Image Enhancement
The image enhancement techniques discussed previously have all been
applied to monochrome images. We will now consider the enhancement of
natural color images and introduce the pseudocolor and false color image
enhancement methods. Pseudocolor produces a color image from a
monochrome image, while false color produces an enhanced color image
from an original natural color image or from multispectral image bands.

4.6.1 Natural Color Image Enhancement
The monochrome image enhancement methods described previously can
be applied to natural color images by processing each color component
individually. It is accomplished by intracomponent and inter-component
processing algorithms.
Intracomponent Processing: Typically, color images are processed in the
RGB color space. This approach works quite well for noise cleaning
algorithms in which the noise is independent between the R, G and B
components. Edge crispening can also be performed on an intracomponent
basis, but more efficient results are often obtained by processing in other
color spaces. Contrast manipulation and histogram modification
intracomponent algorithms often result in severe shifts of the hue and
saturation of color images. Hue preservation can be achieved by using a
single point transformation for each of the three RGB components. For
example, form a sum image, and then compute a histogram equalization
function, which is used for each RGB component.
Intercomponent Processing: The intracomponent processing algorithms
previously discussed provide no means of modifying the hue and saturation
of a processed image in a controlled manner. One means of doing so is to
transform a source RGB image into a three component image, in which the
three components form separate measures of the brightness, hue and
saturation (BHS) of a color image. Ideally, the three components should be
perceptually independent of one another. Once the BHS components are
determined, they can be modified by amplitude scaling methods discussed
in 4.2.1 section.
4.6.2 Pseudocolor
Pseudocolor is a color mapping of a monochrome image array which is
intended to enhance the detectability of detail within the image. The
pseudocolor mapping of an array is defined as
R(j, k) = OR{F(j, k)}
G(j, k) = OG{F(j, k)}
B(j, k) = OB{F(j, k)}

where R(j, k) , G(j, k), B(j, k) are display color components and
OR{F(j, k)}, OG{F(j, k)}, OB{F(j, k)} are linear or nonlinear functional
operators. This mapping defines a path in three-dimensional color space
parametrically in terms of the array F(j, k). Figure 4.11 illustrates the RGB
color space and two color mappings that originate at black and terminate at
white. Mapping A represents the achromatic path through all shades of gray;
it is the normal representation of a monochrome image. Mapping B is a
spiral path through color space. Another class of pseudocolor mappings
includes those mappings that exclude all shades of gray. Mapping C, which
follows the edges of the RGB color cube, is such an example.

Figure 4.11: Black-to-white and RGB perimeter pseudocolor mappings
4.6.3 False color
False color is a point-by-point mapping of an original color image. It is
described by its three primary colors (or of a set of multispectral image
planes of a scene) to a color space defined by display tristimulus values that
are linear or nonlinear functions of the original image pixel values. A
common intent is to provide a displayed image with objects possessing
different or false colors from what might be expected. For example, blue sky
in a normal scene might be converted to appear red, and green grass
transformed to blue. One possible reason for such a color mapping is to
place normal objects in a strange color world so that a human observer will
pay more attention to the objects than if they were colored normally.
Another reason for false color mappings is the attempt to color a normal
scene to match the color sensitivity of a human viewer. For example, it is
known that the luminance response of cones in the retina peaks in the green
region of the visible spectrum. Thus, if a normally red object is false colored
to appear green, it may become more easily detectable. Another
psychophysical property of color vision that can be exploited is the contrast
sensitivity of the eye to changes in blue light. In some situations it may be
worthwhile to map the normal colors of objects with fine detail into shades of
blue.
In a false color mapping, the red, green and blue display color components
are related to natural or multispectral images F
i
by
R
D
= O
R
{F
1
, F
2
,....}
G
D
= O
G
{ F
1
, F
2
, ....}
B
D
= O
B
{ F
1
, F
2
,...}
where O
R
{ }, O
G
{ }, O
B
{ } are general functional operators. As a simple
example, the set of red, green and blue sensor tristimulus values (R
S
= F
1
,
G
S
= F
2
, B
S
= F
3
) may be interchanged according to the relation

Green objects in the original will appear red in the display, blue objects will
appear green and red objects will appear blue. A general linear false color
mapping of natural color images can be defined as

This color mapping should be recognized as a linear coordinate conversion
of colors reproduced by the primaries of the original image to a new set of
primaries.
4.7 Multispectral Image Enhancement
Enhancement procedures are often performed on multispectral image bands
of a scene in order to accentuate salient features to assist in subsequent
human interpretation or machine analysis. These procedures include
individual image band enhancement techniques, such as contrast
stretching, noise cleaning and edge crispening, as discussed earlier. Other
methods involve the joint processing of multispectral image bands.
Multispectral image bands can be subtracted in pairs according to the
relation
Dm, n(j, k) = Fm( j, k) Fn( j, k)
in order to accentuate reflectivity variations between the multispectral bands.
An associated advantage is the removal of any unknown but common bias
components that may exist. Another simple but highly effective means of
multispectral image enhancement is the formation of ratios of the image
bands. The ratio image between the mth and nth multispectral bands is
defined as
Rm n j k Fm j k Fn j k
It is assumed that the image bands are adjusted to have nonzero pixel
values. In many multispectral imaging systems, the image band F
n
( j, k) can
be modeled by the product of an object reflectivity function R
n
( j, k) and an
illumination function I(j, k) that is identical for all multispectral bands.
Ratioing of such imagery provides an automatic compensation of the
illumination factor. The ratio F
m
(j, k) / [F
n
(j, k) (j, k)] for which (j, k)
represents a quantization level uncertainty, can vary considerably if F
n
(j, k)
is small. This variation can be reduced significantly by forming the logarithm
of the ratios defined by
Lm n j k = log Rm n j k = log Fm j k log Fn j k

4.8 Summary
We have studied different image enhancement techniques for
manipulating contrast, noise cleaning and edge crispening.
Histogram modification technique for image enhancement.
We discussed image enhancement technique for color images and also
multi spectral image enhancement
Self Assessment Questions
1. Amplitude Scaling is a method for .
2. An example for linear noise cleaning technique is .
3. In case of linear edge crispening, masks which are used possess a
property that the sum of their elements is .
4. produces a color image from a monochrome image

4.9 Terminal Questions
1. Discuss Amplitude scaling method for contrast manipulation?
2. Explain Histogram modification technique?
3. Explain different linear methods for noise cleaning?
4. Write a note on Statistical differencing technique for edge crispening?
5. Discuss different methods for color image enhancement?

4.10 Answers
Self Assessment Questions
1. Contrast Manipulation
2. Homomorphic Filtering or Convolution method
3. unity
4. Pseudo color
Terminal Questions
1. Refer Section 4.2.1
2. Refer Section 4.3
4. Refer Section 4.5.2

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Digital Image Processing Unit 4

Sikkim Manipal University Page No. 58

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