Digital Image Processing

Lecture 3: Image Enhancement in Spatial

Domain

MARYIAM ZAHOOR
 Image Enhancement
2

Process an image to make the result more suitable than the

original image for a specific application
–Image enhancement is subjective (problem /application oriented)
Image enhancement methods:
Spatial domain: Direct manipulation of pixel in an image (on
the image plane)
Frequency domain: Processing the image based on modifying the
Fourier transform of an image
Many techniques are based on various combinations of methods from
these two categories

04/06/21
 3

Image Enhancement

04/06/21
 4
Basic Concepts

Spatial domain enhancement methods can be generalized as

g(x,y)=T[f(x,y)]
f(x,y): input image
g(x,y): processed (output) image
T[*]: an operator on f (or a set of input images),
defined over neighborhood of (x,y)

Neighborhood about (x,y): a square or rectangular

sub-image area centered at (x,y)

04/06/21
 5

Basic Concepts

04/06/21
 6

Basic Concepts

g(x,y) = T [f(x,y)]
Pixel/point operation:
Neighborhood of size 1x1: g depends only on f at (x,y)
T: a gray-level/intensity transformation/mapping function
Let r = f(x,y) s = g(x,y)
r and s represent gray levels of f and g at (x,y)
Then s = T(r)
Local operations:
g depends on the predefined number of neighbors of f at (x,y)
Implemented by using mask processing or filtering
Masks (filters, windows, kernels, templates) :
a small (e.g. 3×3) 2-D array, in which the values of the
coefficients determine the nature of the process

04/06/21
 7
Common Pixel Operations

 Image Negatives
 Log Transformations
 Power-Law
Transformations

04/06/21
 8
Image Negatives

 Reverses the gray level order

 For L gray levels the transformation function is
s =T(r) = (L - 1) - r

04/06/21
 9
Image Scaling

s =T(r) = a.r (a is a constant)

04/06/21
Log Transformations 10

Function of s = cLog(1+r)

04/06/21
 Log Transformations
11

Properties of log transformations

–For lower amplitudes of input image the range of gray levels
is expanded
–For higher amplitudes of input image the range of gray levels
is compressed
Application:
 This transformation is suitable for the case when the dynamic
range of a processed image far exceeds the capability of the
display device (e.g. display of the Fourier spectrum of an
image)
 Also called “dynamic-range compression / expansion”

04/06/21
Log Transformations
12

04/06/21
 13

Power-Law Transformation

04/06/21
 14

Power-Law Transformation

For γ < 1: Expands values of dark pixels,

compress values of brighter pixels
For γ > 1: Compresses values of dark pixels,
expand values of brighter pixels
If γ=1 & c=1: Identity transformation (s = r)

A variety of devices (image capture, printing, display) respond according to

power law and need to be corrected

Gamma (γ) correction

The process used to correct the power-law response phenomena

04/06/21
 15

Gamma Correction

04/06/21
 16

Power Law Example

04/06/21
 17

Power Law Example (cont…)

γ = 0.6
1
0.9
0.8
Transformed Intensities

0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Old Intensities

04/06/21
 18

Power Law Example (cont…)

γ = 0.4
1
0.9
Transformed Intensities

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Original Intensities

04/06/21
 19

Power Law Example (cont…)

γ = 0.3
1
0.9
Transformed Intensities

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Original Intensities

04/06/21
Power Law Example (cont…) 20

s = r 0.6
 The images to the
right show a
magnetic resonance
(MR) image of a s=
fractured human r

s = r 0.4
0 .3
spine
 Different curves
highlight different
detail

04/06/21
Power Law Example 21

04/06/21
 Power Law Example (cont…) 22

γ = 5.0
1
0.9
Transformed Intensities

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Original Intensities

04/06/21
 23

Power Law Transformations (cont…)

 An aerial photo
of a runway is s = r 3.0
shown
 This time
power law
transforms are

s = r 4.0
s=
used to darken r 5 .0
the image
 Different curves
highlight
different detail

04/06/21
 Piecewise-Linear 24

Transformation
Contrast Stretching
Goal:
 Increase the dynamic range of the gray levels for low contrast
images

Low-contrast images can result from

–poor illumination
–lack of dynamic range in the imaging sensor
–wrong setting of a lens aperture during image acquisition

04/06/21
 25

Contrast Stretching Example

04/06/21
Piecewise-Linear Transformation: 26

Contrast Stretching

04/06/21
 27

Thresholding

04/06/21
 28

Gray Level Slicing

 Highlighting a specific range of Gray

levels in an image

 First approach
 Display a high value for all the gray
levels in the range of interest
 Low value for all other gray levels
 This will produce a Binary Image

04/06/21
 29
Gray Level Slicing

 2nd approach
 Brightensthe desired range of
Gray Levels but preserves the
Gray Levels of rest of the pixels

04/06/21
 30

Bit Plane Slicing

 Given an X-bit per pixel image,
slicing the image at different
planes (bit-planes)
 An application of this
technique is data compression
 In general, 8-bit per pixel
images are processed.

 Zero is the least significant bit

(LSB) and 7 is the most
significant bit (MSB):

04/06/21
 31

Bit Plane Slicing

 Often by isolating particular bits of the

pixel values in an image we can
highlight interesting aspects of that
image
 Higher-order bits usually contain most of
the significant visual information
 Lower-order bits contain
subtle details

04/06/21
 32
Example

04/06/21