Digital Image Processing

Lecture # 5
Image Enhancement

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 HISTOGRAM MATCHING
(SPECIFICATION)
• HISTOGRAM EQUALIZATION DOES NOT ALLOW
INTERACTIVE IMAGE ENHANCEMENT AND
GENERATES ONLY ONE RESULT: AN
APPROXIMATION TO A UNIFORM HISTOGRAM.
• SOMETIMES THOUGH, WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO
SPECIFY PARTICULAR HISTOGRAM SHAPES
CAPABLE OF HIGHLIGHTING CERTAIN GRAY-LEVEL
RANGES.

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 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION
• THE PROCEDURE FOR HISTOGRAM-SPECIFICATION BASED
ENHANCEMENT IS:

– EQUALIZE THE LEVELS OF THE ORIGINAL IMAGE USING:

k nj
s  T (rk )  
j 0 n

n: total number of pixels,

nj: number of pixels with gray level rj,
L: number of discrete gray levels
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 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION

– SPECIFY THE DESIRED DENSITY FUNCTION AND OBTAIN THE

TRANSFORMATION FUNCTION G(z):

k
vk  G  z k    p z  z i   s k
i 0

pz: specified desirable PDF for output

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 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION

• THE NEW, PROCESSED VERSION OF THE

ORIGINAL IMAGE CONSISTS OF GRAY
LEVELS CHARACTERIZED BY THE SPECIFIED
DENSITY pz(z).
1 1
In essence: z  G (s)  z  G [T (r )]

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 MAPPINGS

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 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION

• OBTAIN THE HISTOGRAM OF THE GIVEN IMAGE

• MAP EACH LEVEL rK TO A LEVEL SK
• OBTAIN THE TRANSFORMATION FUNCTION G FROM THE
GIVEN PZ (Z)
• PRECOMPUTE ZK FOR EACH VALUE OF SK
• FOR EACH PIXEL IN THE ORIGINAL IMAGE, IF THE VALUE
OF THAT PIXEL IS rk MAP THIS VALUE TO ITS
CORRESPONDING LEVEL SK, THEN MAP LEVEL SK INTO THE
FINAL VALUE ZK

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 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION
k nk pr(rk) sk pz(zk) vk nk
0 790 0.19 0.19 0 0 0
1 1023 0.25 0.44 0 0 0
2 850 0.21 0.65 0 0 0
3 656 0.16 0.81 0.15 0.15 790
4 329 0.08 0.89 0.2 0.35 1023
5 245 0.06 0.95 0.3 0.65 850
6 122 0.03 0.98 0.2 0.85 985
7 81 0.02 1.0 0.15 1.0 448

A 64X64 (4096 PIXELS) IMAGE WITH 8 GRAY LEVELS

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 IMAGE ENHANCEMENT IN THE
SPATIAL DOMAIN

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 IMAGE ENHANCEMENT IN THE
SPATIAL DOMAIN

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 GLOBAL/LOCAL HISTOGRAM EQUALIZATION
• IT MAY BE NECESSARY TO ENHANCE DETAILS OVER SMALL AREAS IN THE
IMAGE
• THE NUMBER OF PIXELS IN THESE AREAS MAY HAVE NEGLIGIBLE INFLUENCE
ON THE COMPUTATION OF A GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION WHOSE SHAPE
DOES NOT NECESSARILY GUARANTEE THE DESIRED LOCAL ENHANCEMENT
• DEVISE TRANSFORMATION FUNCTIONS BASED ON THE GRAY LEVEL
DISTRIBUTION IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF EVERY PIXEL IN THE IMAGE
• THE PROCEDURE IS:
– DEFINE A SQUARE (OR RECTANGULAR) NEIGHBORHOOD AND MOVE THE
CENTER OF THIS AREA FROM PIXEL TO PIXEL.
– AT EACH LOCATION, THE HISTOGRAM OF THE POINTS IN THE
NEIGHBORHOOD IS COMPUTED AND EITHER A HISTOGRAM
EQUALIZATION OR HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION TRANSFORMATION
FUNCTION IS OBTAINED.
– THIS FUNCTION IS FINALLY USED TO MAP THE GRAY LEVEL OF THE PIXEL
CENTERED IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
– THE CENTER IS THEN MOVED TO AN ADJACENT PIXEL LOCATION AND THE
PROCEDURE IS REPEATED.

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 GLOBAL/LOCAL HISTOGRAM EQUALIZATION

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 USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE
ENHANCEMENT (Global)
• LET r REPRESENT A GRAY LEVEL IN THE IMAGE [0, L-1], AND LET p(ri )
DENOTE THE NORMALIZED HISTOGRAM COMPONENT
CORRESPONDING TO THE ith VALUE OF r.
• THE nth MOMENT OF r ABOUT ITS MEAN IS DEFINED AS

L 1 n

 n  r     ri  m  p ri 
i 0
• WHERE m IS THE MEAN VALUE OF r (AVERAGE GRAY LEVEL)

m  i 0 ri p ri 
L 1

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 USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE
ENHANCEMENT (Global)
• THE SECOND MOMENT IS GIVEN BY

L 1 2

 2  r     ri  m  p ri 
i 0

• WHICH IS THE VARIANCE OF r

• MEAN AS A MEASURE OF AVERAGE GRAY LEVEL IN THE IMAGE
• VARIANCE AS A MEASURE OF AVERAGE CONTRAST

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 USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE
ENHANCEMENT (Local)
• LET (x,y) BE THE COORDINATES OF A PIXEL IN AN
IMAGE, AND LET SX,Y DENOTE A NEIGBORHOOD OF
SPECIFIED SIZE, CENTERED AT (x,y)
• THE MEAN VALUE mSXY OF THE PIXELS IN SX,Y IS

ms xy   r s ,t p  rs ,t 
 s ,t
 S xy

• THE GRAY LEVEL VARIANCE OF THE PIXELS IN

REGION SX,Y IS GIVEN BY

 r 
 ms xy p rs ,t 
2 2
 S xy  s ,t
 s ,t S xy
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 USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE
ENHANCEMENT
• THE GLOBAL MEAN AND VARIANCE ARE MEASURED
OVER AN ENTIRE IMAGE AND ARE USEFUL FOR
GROSS ADJUSTMENTS OF OVERALL INTENSITY AND
CONTRAST.
• A USE OF THESE MEASURES IN LOCAL
ENHANCEMENT IS, WHERE THE LOCAL MEAN AND
VARIANCE ARE USED AS THE BASIS FOR MAKING
CHANGES THAT DEPEND ON IMAGE
CHARACTERISTICS IN A PREDEFINED REGION ABOUT
EACH PIXEL IN THE IMAGE.

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 TUNGSTEN FILAMENT IMAGE

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USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE ENHANCEMENT

• A PIXEL AT POINT (x,y) IS CONSIDERED IF:

– mSXY ≤ k0MG, where k0 is a positive constant less than 1.0, and MG is
global mean
– σsxy ≤ k2DG, where DG is the global standard deviation and k2 is a
positive constant
– k1DG ≤ σsxy ,, with k1 < k2
• A PIXEL THAT MEETS ALL ABOVE CONDITIONS IS
PROCESSED SIMPLY BY MULTIPLYING IT BY A SPECIFIED
CONSTANT, E, TO INCREASE OR DECREASE THE VALUE OF
ITS GRAY LEVEL RELATIVE TO THE REST OF THE IMAGE.
• THE VALUES OF PIXELS THAT DO NOT MEET THE
ENHANCEMENT CONDITIONS ARE LEFT UNCHANGED.

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 IMAGE ENHANCEMENT IN THE
SPATIAL DOMAIN

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 IMAGE ENHANCEMENT IN THE
SPATIAL DOMAIN

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Spatial Filtering
Spatial Filtering

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Spatial Filtering

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Spatial Filtering

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Spatial Filtering

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Spatial Filtering
 Spatial Filtering: Basics
 The output intensity value at (x,y) depends not only on the input
intensity value at (x,y) but also on the specified number of
neighboring intensity values around (x,y)

 Spatial masks (also called window, filter, kernel, template) are used
and convolved over the entire image for local enhancement (spatial
filtering)

 The size of the masks determines the number of neighboring pixels

which influence the output value at (x,y)

 The values (coefficients) of the mask determine the nature and

properties of enhancing technique

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Spatial Filtering: Basics
aa bb

gg((xx,,yy))  ww((ss,,tt))ff((xxss,,yytt))
aat 
t bb
ss

m 1 n 1
where a = , b=
2 2
x  0,1, 2,...., M  1, y  0,1, 2,..., N  1

Filtering can be given in equation

form as shown above

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 Spatial Filtering: Basics
 Given the 3×3 mask with coefficients: w1, w2,…, w9
 The mask cover the pixels with gray levels: z1, z2,…, z9

w1 w2 w3 z1 z2 z3
w4 w5 w6 z4 z5 z6
w7 w8 w9 z7 z8 z9

99
zz

 zz99ww99 
 zz11ww11zz22ww22 zz33ww33  zzi iwwi i
i
i 11

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 Spatial Filtering: Basics

Origin x
Neighbourhood
Neighbourhood
operations: Operate
operations: Operateon
onaa
largerneighbourhood
larger neighbourhoodof
of
pixelsthan
pixels thanpoint
point
operations
operations (x, y)
Neighbourhood

Neighbourhoods
Neighbourhoodsarearemostly
mostlyaa
rectangle
rectanglearound
aroundaacentral
central
pixel
pixel
y Image f (x, y)

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 Spatial Filtering: Basics
Origin x
a b c r s t
d
g
e
h
f
i
* u
x
v
y
w
z
Original Image Filter
Simple 3*3 Pixels
e 3*3 Filter
Neighbourhood
eprocessed = v*e +
r*a + s*b + t*c +
u*d + w*f +
y Image f (x, y) x*g + y*h + z*i
The
Theabove
aboveisisrepeated
repeatedfor
forevery
everypixel
pixelininthe
theoriginal
originalimage
imagetotogenerate
generatethe
thefiltered
filteredimage
image

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 Spatial Filtering: Basics
Original Image x Enhanced Image x
123 127 128 119 115 130

140 145 148 153 167 172

133 154 183 192 194 191

194 199 207 210 198 195

164 170 175 162 173 151

y y

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Spatial Filtering: Basics

Moving window (kernel)

scans the 3x3
neighborhood of every
pixel in the image

Original Image

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Spatial Filtering: Basics

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Spatial Filtering: Basics

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Spatial Filtering: Basics

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Spatial Filtering: Basics

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Spatial Filtering: Basics

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 Spatial Filtering: Basics
Mask operation near the image border: Problem arises when
part of the mask is located outside the image plane

Discard
Discardthe theproblem
problempixels
pixels(e.g.
(e.g.
512x512
512x512 input 510x510 outputififmask
input 510x510 output mask Pixel
Pixelreplication:
replication:We We
size is 3x3)
size is 3x3) normally
normallyuse usethe
thegray
gray
Zero
Zeropadding:
padding:Expand
Expandthe theinput
input levels
levelsof ofborder
borderpixels
pixelsto
to
image
imageby bypadding
paddingzeros
zeros(512x512
(512x512 fill
fillup
upthe
theexpanded
expandedregion
region
original
originalimage,
image,514x514
514x514padded
padded (for
(for3x3
3x3mask).
mask).For
Forlarger
larger
image,
image, 512x512
512x512output)
output) masks
masksaaborder
borderregion
region
Zero
Zeropadding
paddingisisnot
not equal
equalto tohalf
halfof
ofthe
themask
mask
recommended
recommendedas asititcreates
creates size
sizeisismirrored
mirroredon onthe
the
artificial
artificiallines
linesor
oredges
edgeson onthe
the expanded
expandedregion.
region.
border
border
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Spatial Filtering: Basics
Mask operation near the border: Pixel
replication

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 Smoothing Spatial Filters
Simplyaverage
Simply averageall
allof
ofthe
thepixels
pixelsininaaneighbourhood
neighbourhoodaround
around
aacentral
centralvalue
value

1
/9 1
/9 1
/9
Simple
1
/9 1
/9 1
/9 averaging
filter
1
/9 1
/9 1
/9

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 Smoothing Spatial Filters
For blurring/noise reduction

Blurring is usually used in preprocessing steps, e.g., to remove

small details from an image prior to object extraction, or to bridge
small gaps in lines or curves
Equivalent to Low-pass spatial filtering in frequency domain
because smaller (high frequency) details are removed based on
neighborhood averaging (averaging filters)

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 Smoothing Spatial Filters
Origin x
104 100 108 1
/9 1
/9 1
/9

* /9 /9 /9
1 1 1
99 106 98

95 90 85 1
/9 1
/9 1
/9
1
/9 100
104 1
/9 108
1
/9
Original Image Filter
Simple 3*3 /9 106
1
99 1
/9 198
/9
3*3 Smoothing Pixels
Neighbourhood /9 190
1
95 /9 185
/9 Filter
e = 1/9*106 +
1
/9*104 + 1/9*100 + 1/9*108 +
1
/9*99 + 1/9*98 +
y Image f (x, y) 1
/9*95 + 1/9*90 + 1/9*85
= 98.3333
The above is repeated for every pixel in the original image to generate the smoothed image

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Smoothing Filter: Example

original
original 3x3 average
3x3 average

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Smoothing Filter: Example

original
original 3x3 average
3x3 average

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Smoothing Filter: Example

original
original 3x3 average
3x3 average

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Smoothing Filter: Example

original
original 3x3 average
3x3 average

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 Original image
Smooth by 3x3
Size: 500x500 box filter

Smooth by 5x5 Smooth by 9x9

box filter box filter

Smooth by
Smooth by
35x35 box filter
15x15 box filter

Noticehow
Notice howdetail
detailbegins
beginsto
todisappear
disappear
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 Smoothing Spatial Filters
Consider
Considerthe
the
output
outputpixel
pixelis
is
positioned
positionedatat
the
thecenter
center

Box Filter all Weighted Average give

coefficients are more (less) weight to near
equal (away from) the output
location

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 Readings from Book (3 Edn.) rd

• 3.2 Basic Intensity Transformation Functions

• Bit Plane Slicing
• 3.3 Histogram
 Acknowledgements
 Digital Image Processing”, Rafael C. Gonzalez & Richard E. Woods, Addison-Wesley, 2008
Material in these slides has been taken from, the following resources

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