Color Image

Processing

Color Fundamentals
Color fundamentals and models
Color transformations
Smoothing and sharpening
Color segmentation
Pseudocolor
Slicing
False-color maps
Index color
Multispectral color models

Retinal Physiology and Color

Human retinas have (at least) four types of
photoreceptors
Three types of cones
High light level, high acuity vision
Each type of cone has a different spectral response

One type of rods

Low-light level and peripheral vision

There is substantive genetic diversity in color

receptors
Different spectral response of photoreceptor
Absence of one of the pigments
Many more phenomena...

Color Fundamentals

Color Fundamentals

Color Fundamentals

Color Fundamentals

Color Fundamentals

Color Fundamentals

Color Fundamentals

Spectral Response of Cones

Color Fundamentals

Color Fundamentals

CIE CHROMATICITY DIAGRAM

Tristimulus value
The amounts of red, green, and blue needed to form
any particular color are called the tristimulus values,
denoted by X, Y, and Z.
Trichromatic coefficients
X
Y
Z
x
, y
, z
X Y Z
X Y Z
X Y Z
Only two chromaticity coefficients are necessary to
specify the chrominance of a light.

X Y Z 1

CIE CHROMATICITY DIAGRAM

CIE CHROMATICITY DIAGRAM

COLOR MODELS

RGB color Model

RGB color Model

RGB
In the RGB model each colour appears in its
primary spectral components of red, green and
blue
The model is based on a Cartesian coordinate
system
RGB values are at 3 corners
Cyan magenta and yellow are at three other corners
Black is at the origin
White is the corner furthest from the origin
Different colours are points on or inside the cube
represented by RGB vectors

RGB color Model

RGB Color model

Source: www.mitsubishi.com

Active displays, such as computer monitors and television sets, emit

combinations of red, green and blue light. This is an additive color model
26

RGB (cont)
Images represented in the RGB colour model
consist of three component images one for
each primary colour
When fed into a monitor these images are
combined to create a composite colour image
The number of bits used to represent each pixel
is referred to as the colour depth
A 24-bit image is often referred to as a fullcolour image as it allows
= 16,777,216
3
colours
8

RGB color Model

Chapter 6
Color Image Processing

RGB Example

Original

Red Band

Green Band

Blue Band
30

CMY color model

If the intensities are represented as 0r,g,b1 and
0c,m,y1 (also coordinates 0-255 can be
used), then the relation between RGB and CMY
can be described as:

c 1 r
m 1 g

y
1
b

CMY Color model

Source: www.hp.com

Passive displays, such as color inkjet printers, absorb light instead of

emitting it. Combinations of cyan, magenta and yellow inks are used. This
is a subtractive color model.
32

CMYK model
For printing and graphics art industry, CMY
is not enough; a fourth primary, K which
stands for black, is added.
Conversions between RGB and CMYK are
possible, although they require some extra
processing.

HIS color model

HSI Color Model

Based on human perception of colors. Color is decoupled from intensity.
HUE
A subjective measure of color
Average human eye can perceive ~200 different colors
Saturation
Relative purity of the color. Mixing more white with a color reduces
its saturation.
Pink has the same hue as red but less saturation
Intensity
The brightness or darkness of an object

35

HSI Color Model

Hue is defined as an angle
0 degrees is RED
120 degrees is GREEN
240 degrees is BLUE
Saturation is defined as the percentage of distance from the center
of the HSI triangle to the pyramid surface.
Values range from 0 to 1.

Intensity is denoted as the distance up the axis from black.

Values range from 0 to 1

36

HSI, Intensity & RGB

Intensity can be extracted from RGB images
which is not surprising if we stop to think
about it
Remember the diagonal on the RGB colour
cube that we saw previously ran from black to
white
Now consider if we stand this cube on the
black vertex and position the white vertex
directly above it

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

HSI, Intensity & RGB (cont)

Now the intensity component
of any colour can be
determined by passing a
plane perpendicular to
the intenisty axis and
containing the colour
point
The intersection of the plane
with the intensity axis gives us the intensity
component of the colour

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

HSI, Hue & RGB

In a similar way we can extract the hue from the
RGB colour cube
Consider a plane defined by
the three points cyan, black
and white
All points contained in
this plane must have the
same hue (cyan) as black
and white cannot contribute
hue information to a colour

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

The HSI Colour Model (cont)

To the right we see a hexagonal
shape and an arbitrary colour
point
The hue is determined by an
angle from a reference point,
usually red
The saturation is the distance from the origin to the
point
The intensity is determined by how far up the vertical
intenisty axis this hexagonal plane sits (not apparent
from this diagram

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

The HSI Colour Model (cont)

Because the only important things are the angle
and the length of the saturation vector this plane
is also often represented as a circle or a triangle

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

HSI Model Examples

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

HSI Model Examples

Converting colors from RGB to HSI

Converting from HSI to RGB

Manipulating Images In The HSI

Model
In order to manipulate an image under the
HIS model we:
First convert it from RGB to HIS
Perform our manipulations under HSI
Finally convert the image back from HSI to
RGB
RGB
RGB
Image
Image

HSI
HSI Image
Image

Manipulations

RGB
RGB
Image
Image

Pseudocolour Image Processing

Pseudocolour (also called false
colour) image processing consists
of assigning colours to grey values
based on a specific criterion
The principle use of pseudocolour
image processing is for human
visualisation
Humans can discern between
thousands of colour shades and
intensities, compared to only about
two dozen or so shades of grey

Pseudo Colour Image Processing

Intensity Slicing

Intensity slicing and colour coding is one of the

simplest kinds of pseudocolour image processing
First we consider an image as a 3D function
mapping spatial coordinates to intensities (that
we can consider heights)
Now consider placing planes at certain levels
parallel to the coordinate plane
If a value is one side of such a plane it is
rendered in one colour, and a different colour if
on the other side

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Pseudocolour Image Processing

Intensity Slicing (cont)

Pseudocolour Image Processing

Intensity Slicing (cont)
In general intensity slicing can be summarised
as:
Let [0, L-1] represent the grey scale
Let l0 represent black [f(x, y) = 0] and let lL-1
represent white [f(x, y) = L-1]
Suppose P planes perpendicular to the intensity
axis are defined at levels l1, l2, , lp
Assuming that 0 < P < L-1 then the P planes
partition the grey scale into P + 1 intervals V1, V2,
,VP+1

Pseudocolour Image Processing

Intensity Slicing (cont)
Grey level colour assignments can then be
made according to the relation:
f (x, y) c k iff (x, y) Vk
where ck is the colour associated with the kth
intensity level Vk defined by the partitioning
planes at l = k 1 and l = k

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

RGB -> HSI -> RGB (cont)

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

RGB -> HSI -> RGB (cont)

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

RGB -> HSI -> RGB (cont)

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

RGB -> HSI -> RGB (cont)

Color Transformations
Formulation

Color Transformations
Formulation

Tone and Color Corrections

Tone and Color Corrections

Tone and Color Corrections

Histogram Processing

Smoothing and Sharpening

Color Image Smoothing

Color Image Sharpening

Color Segmentation

Segmentation
in RGB Vector Space

Color Edge Detection

Color Edge Detection