Contrast enhancement dynamic histogram equalization for medical image processing application

Image processing requires an excellent image contrast‐enhancement technique to extract useful information invisible to the human or machine vision. Because of the histogram flattening, the widely used conventional histogram equalization image‐enhancing technique suffers from severe brightness changes, rendering it undesirable. Hence, we introduce a contrast‐enhancement dynamic histogram‐equalization algorithm method that generates better output image by preserving the input mean brightness without introducing the unfavorable side effects of checkerboard effect, artefacts, and washed‐out appearance. The first procedure of this technique is; normalizing input histogram and followed by smoothing process. Then, the break point detection process is done to divide the histogram into subhistograms before we can remap the gray level allocation. Lastly, the transformation function of each subhistogram is constructed independently. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 21, 280‐289, 2011;     

Adaptive contrast enhancement based on histogram modification framework

ABSTRACT

An adaptive contrast enhancement method is proposed in this paper. The proposed method is based on the contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE) and the histogram modification framework. The predefined clip point for the clipped histogram of each block in original CLAHE may still result in excessive contrast enhancement in homogeneous regions, which gives the enhanced image an unnatural look and creates visual artifacts. By replacing the clipped histogram with a modified histogram, the proposed method achieves success in adaptively enhancing contrast in each block based on its content. In addition to this, a novel mapping function is introduced to further improve the enhanced result of histogram equalization (HE). Experiments are conducted with both visible images and infrared images to evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The results show that the proposed method gets better performance on contrast enhancement and visual quality of the enhanced results.     

一种应用于AC PDP的反gamma校正与动态对比度增强相结合的新方法

由于交流等离子体显示器(AC PDP)的显示特性是线性的,因此在显示接收到的视频信号前必须要进行反gamma校正.同时,为了提高显示器件的画质,必须要进行对比度增强.直方图均衡化是一种重要的对比度增强方法,但直方图均衡化的增强效果不可控,往往由于过增强而导致图像失真.本文结合上述两种技术提出了一种应用于AC PDP的反gamma校正与可控的动态对比度增强相结合算法.该算法能够在对输入视频图像进行反gamma校正的同时,实现幅度可调的动态对比度增强.同时避免了传统直方图均衡化对图像产生的过增强现象.本文实现了基于提出算法的实时图像处理器,并且在50英寸AC PDP上进行了测试.模拟仿真及实际测试结果均表明,本文提出的算法能够使AC PDP的画质得到显著提升.     

Brightness preserving bi‐level fuzzy histogram equalization for MRI brain image contrast enhancement

In this article, brightness preserving bi‐level fuzzy histogram equalization (BPFHE) is proposed for the contrast enhancement of MRI brain images. Histogram equalization (HE) is widely used for improving the contrast in digital images. As a result, such image creates side‐effects such as washed‐out appearance and false contouring due to the significant change in brightness. In order to overcome these problems, mean brightness preserving HE based techniques have been proposed. Generally, these methods partition the histogram of the original image into sub histograms and then independently equalize each sub‐histogram. The BPFHE consists of two stages. First, fuzzy histogram is computed based on fuzzy set theory to handle the inexactness of gray level values in a better way compared to classical crisp histograms. In the second stage, the fuzzy histogram is divided into two sub‐histograms based on the mean intensities of the multi‐peaks in the original image and then equalizes them independently to preserve image brightness. The quantitative and subjective enhancement of proposed BPBFHE algorithm is evaluated using two well known parameters like entropy or average information contents (AIC) and Feature Similarity Index Matrix (FSIM) for different gray scale images. The proposed method have been tested using several images and gives better visual quality as compared to the conventional methods. The simulation results show that the proposed method has better performance than the existing methods, and preserve the original brightness quite well, so that it is possible to be utilized in medical image diagnosis.     

Gaussian probability bi-histogram equalization for enhancement of the pathological features in medical images

In order to enhance the pathological features of medical images and aid the medical diagnosis, the image enhancement is a necessary process. This study presented the Gaussian probability model combining with bi-histogram equalization to enhance the contrast of pathological features in medical images. There are five different bi-histogram equalizations, namely, bi-histogram equalization (BBHE), dualistic sub-image histogram equalization (DSIHE), bi-histogram equalization with a plateau limit (BHEPL), bi-histogram equalization median plateau limit (BHEPL-D), and bi-histogram equalization with modified histogram bins (BHEMHB). The entropy, contrast, absolute mean brightness error (AMBE), and skewness difference are used to quantize the enhancement results. From the experimental result, it is observed that the entropy and contrast of the images can be effectively enhanced by using Gaussian probability bi-histogram equalizations, and the Gaussian probability bi-histogram equalization median plateau limit (GPBHEPL-D) has the best enhanced result. The proposed GPBHEPL-D method is effective in strengthening the pathological features in medical images, so as to increase the efficiency of doctors' diagnoses and computer-aided detection.     

A General Framework of Reversible Data Hiding with Controlled Contrast Enhancement

This paper proposes a two-step general framework for reversible data hiding (RDH) schemes with controllable contrast enhancement. The first step aims at preserving visual perception as much as possible on the basis of achieving high embedding capacity (EC), while the second step is used for increasing image contrast. In the second step, some peak-pairs are utilized so that the histogram of pixel values is modified to perform histogram equalization (HE), which would lead to the image contrast enhancement. However, for HE, the utilization of some peak-pairs easily leads to over-enhanced image contrast when a large number of bits are embedded. Therefore, in our proposed framework, contrast over-enhancement is avoided by controlling the degree of contrast enhancement. Since the second step can only provide a small amount of data due to controlled contrast enhancement, the first one helps to achieve a large amount of data without degrading visual quality. Any RDH method which can achieve high EC while preserve good visual quality, can be selected for the first step. In fact, Gao et al.’s method is a special case of our proposed framework. In addition, two simple and commonly-used RDH methods are also introduced to further demonstrate the generalization of our framework.     

一种微弱图像增强技术研究

对传统灰度图像直方图均衡化方法进行了深入研究,提出了一种基于正切函数调整的直方图均衡化改进算法,该方法有利于提高图像的对比度,达到对图像判别的要求。 算法实现的关键是最优参数选择,因此采用了一种便于选择最优参数的方法。 另外,将图像相似程度应用于了增强效果的评价,为图像增强的实验分析提供了新的方法,具有一定的科学性与可行性。 实验结果表明,该算法比现有的图像增强方法效果更好。     

自适应红外图像直方图均衡增强算法

针对红外图像的特点,本文提出了一种自适应红外图像直方图均衡增强算法.该方法根据原始图像的直方图,自适应地构造出一个加权函数对原始图像的直方图进行加权处理,然后采用加权后的直方图对原始图像进行直方图均衡化.算法不需要人为指定阈值,而且克服了传统直方图均衡提升红外图像背景的缺点.实验结果表明,该算法对红外图像具有较好的增强效果,能够有效地抑制图像的背景,突出目标.     

Image contrast enhancement with brightness preservation using an optimal gamma correction and weighted sum approach

The enhancement of image contrast and preservation of image brightness are two important but conflicting objectives in image restoration. Previous attempts based on linear histogram equalization had achieved contrast enhancement, but exact preservation of brightness was not accomplished. A new perspective is taken here to provide balanced performance of contrast enhancement and brightness preservation simultaneously by casting the quest of such solution to an optimization problem. Specifically, the non-linear gamma correction method is adopted to enhance the contrast, while a weighted sum approach is employed for brightness preservation. In addition, the efficient golden search algorithm is exploited to determine the required optimal parameters to produce the enhanced images. Experiments are conducted on natural colour images captured under various indoor, outdoor and illumination conditions. Results have shown that the proposed method outperforms currently available methods in contrast to enhancement and brightness preservation.     

Contrast enhancement via texture region based histogram equalization

Abstract

This paper presents two novel contrast enhancement approaches using texture regions-based histogram equalization (HE). In HE-based contrast enhancement methods, the enhanced image often contains undesirable artefacts because an excessive number of pixels in the non-textured areas heavily bias the histogram. The novel idea presented in this paper is to suppress the impact of pixels in non-textured areas and to exploit texture features for the computation of histogram in the process of HE. The first algorithm named as Dominant Orientation-based Texture Histogram Equalization (DOTHE), constructs the histogram of the image using only those image patches having dominant orientation. DOTHE categories image patches into smooth, dominant or non-dominant orientation patches by using the image variance and singular value decomposition algorithm and utilizes only dominant orientation patches in the process of HE. The second method termed as Edge-based Texture Histogram Equalization, calculates significant edges in the image and constructs the histogram using the grey levels present in the neighbourhood of edges. The cumulative density function of the histogram formed from texture features is mapped on the entire dynamic range of the input image to produce the contrast-enhanced image. Subjective as well as objective performance assessment of proposed methods is conducted and compared with other existing HE methods. The performance assessment in terms of visual quality, contrast improvement index, entropy and measure of enhancement reveals that the proposed methods outperform the existing HE methods.     

A machine learning approach for brain image enhancement and segmentation

In brain MRI analysis, image segmentation is commonly used for measuring and visualizing the brain's anatomical structures, for surgical planning, etc. However, due to presence of noise and uncertainty between different tissues in the brain image, the segmentation of brain is a challenging task. This problem is rectified in this article using two stages. In the first stage an enhancement technique called contrast limited fuzzy adaptive histogram equalization (CLFAHE) which is a combination of CLAHE and fuzzy enhancement is used to improve the contrast of MRI Brain images. Contrast of the image is controlled using contrast intensification operator (Clip limit). The second stage deals with the segmentation of enhanced image. The enhanced brain images are segmented using new level‐set method which has the property of both local and global segmentation. Signed pressure force (SPF) function is also used here which stops the contours at weak and blurred edged efficiently.     

Contrast limited fuzzy adaptive histogram equalization for enhancement of brain images

Contrast limited fuzzy adaptive histogram equalization (CLFAHE) is proposed to improve the contrast of MRI Brain images. The proposed method consists of three stages. First, the gray level intensities are transformed into membership plane and membership plane is modified with Contrast intensification operator. In the second stage, the contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization is applied to the modified membership plane to prevent excessive enhancement in contrast by preserving the original brightness. Finally, membership plane is mapped back to the gray level intensities. The performance of proposed method is evaluated and compared with the existing methods in terms of qualitative measures such as entropy, PSNR, AMBE, and FSIM. The proposed method provides enhanced results by giving better contrast enhancement and preserving the local information of the original image. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 27, 98–103, 2017     

Visibility-enhanced reconstruction of three-dimensional objects under a heavily scattering medium through combined use of intermediate view reconstruction, multipixel extraction, and histogram equalization methods in the conventional integral imaging system

In this paper, we propose an effective approach for reconstructing visibility-enhanced three-dimensional (3D) objects under the heavily scattering medium of dense fog in the conventional integral imaging system through the combined use of the intermediate view reconstruction (IVR), multipixel extraction (MPE), and histogram equalization (HE) methods. In the proposed system, the limited number of elemental images (EIs) picked up from the 3D objects under the dense fog is increased by as many as required by using the IVR technique. The increased number of EIs is transformed into the subimages (SIs) in which the resolution of the transformed SIs has been also improved as much as possible with the MPE method. Subsequently, by using the HE algorithm, the histogram of the resolution-enhanced SIs is uniformly redistributed over the entire range of discrete pixel levels of the image in a way that the subimage contrast can be much enhanced. Then, these equalized SIs are converted back into the newly modified EIs, and consequently a visibility-enhanced 3D object image can be reconstructed. Successful experimental results with the test object confirmed the feasibility of the proposed method.     

Palmprint enhancement using recursive histogram equalisation

Abstract

Palmprint identification system is one of the most powerful personal identification systems in recent years. In order to achieve high identification accuracy, all parts of the palmprint are needed to be enhanced. Histogram equalisation is a very popular image enhancing technique. A novel histogram equalisation technique, called recursive\ histogram equalisation, for brightness preservation and image contrast enhancement, is put forward in this paper. The essence of proposed algorithm is to decompose an input histogram into two or more sub-histograms recursively based on its mean, change the sub-histograms through a weighting process based on a normalised power law function and then equalise the weighted sub-histograms independently. Experiments show that our method preserves the mean brightness of a given image, enhances the contrast and produces more natural looking images than the other histogram equalisation methods.     

Optimized contrast enhancement for tumor detection

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a real assistant for doctors. It provides rich information about anatomy of human body for precise diagnosis of a diseases or disorder. But it is quite challenging to extract relevant information from low contrast and poor quality MRI images. Poor visual interpretation is a hindrance in correct diagnosis of a disease. This creates a strong need for contrast enhancement of MRI images. Study of existing literature shows that conventional techniques focus on intensity histogram equalization. These techniques face the problems of over enhancement, noise and unwanted artifacts. Moreover, these are incapable to yield the maximum entropy and brightness preservation. Thus ineffective in diagnosis of a defect/disease such as tumor. This motivates the authors to propose the contrast enhancement model namely optimized double threshold weighted constrained histogram equalization. The model is a pipelined approach that incorporates Otsu's double threshold method, particle swarm optimized weighted constrained model, histogram equalization, adaptive gamma correction, and Wiener filtering. This algorithm preserves all essential information recorded in an image by automatically selecting an appropriate value of threshold for image segmentation. The proposed model is effective in detecting tumor from enhanced MRI images.     

Image contrast enhancement using histogram equalization with maximum intensity coverage

The histogram equalization process is a simple yet efficient image contrast enhancement technique that generally produces satisfactory results. However, due to its design limitations, output images often experience a loss of fine details or contain unwanted viewing artefacts. One reason for such imperfection is a failure of some techniques to fully utilize the allowable intensity range in conveying the information captured from a scene. The proposed colour image enhancement technique introduced in this work aims at maximizing the information content within an image, whilst minimizing the presence of viewing artefacts and loss of details. This is achieved by weighting the input image and the interim equalized image recursively until the allowed intensity range is maximally covered. The proper weighting factor is optimally determined using the efficient golden section search algorithm. Experiments had been conducted on a large number of images captured under natural indoor and outdoor environment. Results showed that the proposed method is able to recover the largest amount of information as compared to other current approaches. The developed method also provides satisfactory performances in terms of image contrast, and sharpness.     

Brightness preserving optimized weighted bi-histogram equalization algorithm and its application to MR brain image segmentation

Medical image segmentation is crucial for neuroscience research and computer-aided diagnosis. However, intensity inhomogeneity and existence of noise in magnetic resonance images lead to incorrect segmentation. In this article, an effective method called enhanced fuzzy level set algorithm is presented to segment the white matter, gray matter, and cerebrospinal fluid automatically in contrast-enhanced brain images. In this method, first, exposure threshold is computed to divide the input histogram into two sub-histograms of different gray levels. The input histogram is clipped using a mean gray level to control the excessive enhancement rate. Then, these two sub-histograms are modified and equalized independently to get a better contrast enhanced image. Finally, an enhanced fuzzy level set algorithm is employed to facilitate image segmentation. The extensive experimental results proved the outstanding performance of the proposed algorithm compared with other existing methods. The results conform its effectiveness for MR brain image segmentation.     

MRI brain image enhancement using brightness preserving adaptive fuzzy histogram equalization

In this article, fuzzy logic based adaptive histogram equalization (AHE) is proposed to enhance the contrast of MRI brain image. Medical image plays an important role in monitoring patient's health condition and giving an effective diagnostic. Mostly, medical images suffer from different problems such as poor contrast and noise. So it is necessary to enhance the contrast and to remove the noise in order to improve the quality of a various medical images such as CT, X‐ray, MRI, and MAMOGRAM images. Fuzzy logic is a useful tool for handling the ambiguity or uncertainty. Brightness Preserving Adaptive Fuzzy Histogram Equalization technique is proposed to improve the contrast of MRI brain images by preserving brightness. Proposed method comprises of two stages. First, fuzzy logic is applied to an input image and then it's output is given to AHE technique. This process not only preserves the mean brightness and but also improves the contrast of an image. A huge number of highly MRI brain images are taken in the proposed method. Performance of the proposed method is compared with existing methods using the parameters namely entropy, feature similarity index, and contrast improvement index and the experimental results show that the proposed method overwhelms the previous existing methods.     

一种基于视觉感兴趣区域的彩色图像增强方法

目的把视觉感兴趣区域概念引入直方图的建造中,提出了一种新的基于视觉感兴趣区域的图像增强方法,使增强效果更符合人眼视觉感知。方法首先在标准观测环境下利用先进的眼动仪设备获得人眼感兴趣区域,然后计算各子区域的平均显著值,以确定各个子区域的权重系数,最后采取类似直方图均衡化的思想,优化配比灰度级的动态范围。结果通过主客观实验结果表明,增强后的图像更符合人眼视觉感知。结论结合了视觉感知特性的直方图增强方法,弥补了传统直方图与人眼视觉感知不一致的弊端,其增强效果更佳。     

Combination of wavelet transform and singular value decomposition-based contrast enhancement technique for target detection in UAV reconnaissance thermal images

In Aerial surveillance, thermal images acquired by unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) are greatly affected due to various external interferences, which results in a low contrast image. Widely used conventional contrast enhancement methods such as histogram equalization and dynamic range partitioning techniques suffer from severe brightness changes and reduced sharpness, which in turn fail to preserve the edge details of the image. Thus for efficient target detection, it is essential to develop effective thermal infrared image contrast and edge enhancement technique. In this paper, wavelet transform (WT) and singular value decomposition (SVD)-based image enhancement technique is attempted for the target detection using thermal images captured by UAV. The discrete wavelet transform (DWT), stationary wavelet transform (SWT) and SVD are used for texture feature enhancement, edge enhancement and illumination correction, respectively. The experimental results show that the proposed technique yields higher entropy (6.7485), EMEE (2.1212), MSSIM (0.8719) and lower AMBE (21.9049) values when compared to other existing techniques.