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.     

Gauss Gradient and SURF Features for Landmine Detection from GPR Images

Recently, ground-penetrating radar (GPR) has been extended as a well-known area to investigate the subsurface objects. However, its output has a low resolution, and it needs more processing for more interpretation. This paper presents two algorithms for landmine detection from GPR images. The first algorithm depends on a multi-scale technique. A Gaussian kernel with a particular scale is convolved with the image, and after that, two gradients are estimated; horizontal and vertical gradients. Then, histogram and cumulative histogram are estimated for the overall gradient image. The bin values on the cumulative histogram are used for discrimination between images with and without landmines. Moreover, a neural classifier is used to classify images with cumulative histograms as feature vectors. The second algorithm is based on scale-space analysis with the number of speeded-up robust feature (SURF) points as the key parameter for classification. In addition, this paper presents a framework for size reduction of GPR images based on decimation for efficient storage. The further classification steps can be performed on images after interpolation. The sensitivity of classification accuracy to the interpolation process is studied in detail.     

Feature extraction through generalization of histogram refinement technique for local region‐based object attributes

Content based image retrieval (CBIR) is used to retrieve digital images from large databases. However, the problem of retrieving images on the basis of the contents remains largely unsolved. The proposed method of image retrieval is based on the information provided by histogram analysis of the intensity or grayscale values of images. Some additional properties are also calculated and used that are based on regional characteristics of various objects in the image. The need to retrieve the additional regional properties arises due to the fact that the standard histograms are insensitive to small changes in images. Many images of different types can have similar histograms, because, histograms provide only a coarse characterization of an image. This is the main disadvantage of using histograms. This research is based on the concept of Histogram Refinement (Pass and Zabih, IEEE Workshop Appl Comput Vision ( 1996 ), 96–102). Distributing the grayscale image intensities by splitting the pixels using their intensity values into several classes just like the histogram refinement method can provide an estimate of the object characteristics present in an image. After the calculation of clusters using a color refinement method, the inherent features of each of the clusters is calculated based on the regional properties of the clusters. These additional region based features expound some structural information of the image. Finally, all of these features are used for image retrieval. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 21, 298–306, 2011;     

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.     

Medical image contrast enhancement based on improved sparrow search algorithm

The collection or transmission of medical images is often disturbed by various factors, such as insufficient brightness and noise pollution, which will result in the deterioration of image quality and significantly affect the clinical diagnosis. To improve the quality of medical images, a contrast enhancement method based on improved sparrow search algorithm is proposed in this paper. The method is divided into two steps to enhance the medical images. First, a new transform function is introduced to improve the brightness or contrast of medical images, and two parameters in the transform function are optimized by the improved sparrow search algorithm. Second, adaptive histogram equalization method with contrast limited is used to equalize the result image of the previous step to make the pixel distribution of the image more uniform. Finally, a large number of experiments and qualitative and quantitative analyses were conducted on the common data sets. The analysis results demonstrate that the presented approach outperforms some existing medical image processing approaches.     

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.     

Hybrid Measurements of Image Histograms,with an Application to Texture Discrimination

Histograms of images show frequencies of occurrence of different grey levels in an image. Uses of such histograms include image encoding, defocus measurements and texture discrimination. Our three aims are to simplify the determination of histograms by measuring only a few moments of the histogram, to achieve fast hybrid electro-optical measurement of the moments and other statistical features, and to apply these measurements to texture discrimination.     

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.     

Perceptual image hashing using local entropies and DWT

Abstract

Image hashing is an emerging technology in multimedia security. It uses a short string called image hash to represent an input image and finds applications in image authentication, tamper detection, digital watermark, image indexing, content-based image retrieval and image copy detection. This paper presents a hashing algorithm based on the observation that block entropies are approximately linearly changed after content-preserving manipulations. This is done by converting the input image to a fixed size, dividing the normalised image into non-overlapping blocks, extracting entropies of image blocks and applying a single-level 2D discrete wavelet transform to perform feature compression. Correlation coefficient is exploited to evaluate similarity between hashes. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm is robust against content-preserving operations, such as JPEG compression, watermark embedding, Gamma correction, Gaussian low-pass filtering, adjustments of brightness and contrast, scaling and small angle rotation. Similarity values between hashes of different images are small, indicating good performances in discriminative capability.     

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.     

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.     

An improved adaptive detail enhancement algorithm for infrared images based on guided image filter

Detail enhancement algorithms are important for raw infrared images to improve their overall contrast and highlight important information in them. To solve the problems that current algorithms like GF&DDE have, an improved adaptive detail enhancement algorithm for infrared images based on a guided image filter is proposed in this paper. It chooses the threshold for the base layer image adaptively according to the histogram statistical information and adjusts the mapping range of the histograms according to the dynamic range of the image. Besides, the detail layer is handled by a simpler adaptive gain control method to achieve the good detail enhancement effect. Finally, the base layer and the detail are merged according to the approximate proportion of the background and the details. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can adaptively and efficiently enhance different dynamic range images in different scenarios. Moreover, this algorithm has high real-time performance.     

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;     

一种高通量dPCR荧光图像自适应增强算法

目的 为了改善荧光图像背景光照不均匀和对比度低的问题,提出一种荧光图像自适应亮度校正和低对比度增强算法。方法 根据光照成像原理,利用引导滤波提取出荧光图像的光照分量,通过改进的二维Gamma函数动态校正背景光照,利用Top-hat变换分离出校正后的前景和背景,对前景进行自适应直方图均衡化,以实现荧光图像自适应增强的目的。结果 对比传统算法,文中算法处理后的图像背景光照均匀,对比度增强效果明显,其中标准差平均提高了9.4倍,平均梯度平均提高了1.2倍,信息熵平均提高了0.2倍。结论 文中算法可以改善高通量dPCR荧光图像背景光照不均匀性,提高图像对比度,突出图像中隐藏的细节,对其他荧光图像处理也具有参考价值。     

Contrast enhancement of computed tomography images by adaptive histogram equalization‐application for improved ischemic stroke detection

The visualization of computed tomography brain images is basically done by performing the window setting, which stretches an image from the Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine format into the standard grayscale format. However, the standard window setting does not provide a good contrast to highlight the hypodense area for the detection of ischemic stroke. While the conventional histogram equalization and other proposed enhanced schemes insufficiently enhance the image contrast, they also may introduce unwanted artifacts on the so‐called “enhanced image.” In this article, a new adaptive method is proposed to excellently improve the image contrast without causing any unwanted defects. The method first decomposed an image into equal‐sized nonoverlapped sub‐blocks. After that, the distribution of the extreme levels in the histogram for a sub‐block is eliminated. The eliminated distribution pixels are then equally redistributed to the other grey levels with threshold limitation. Finally, the grey level reallocation function is defined. The bilinear interpolation is used to estimate the best value for each pixel in the images to remove the potential blocking effect. © 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 22, 153–160, 2012     

基于图像信息熵统计直方图的图像增强算法

目的为了解决图像因亮度较大造成的成像效果不佳、局部细节不清楚等问题。方法将直方图均衡化技术(Histogram Equalization, HE)引入图像信息熵域,提出对比度弱化的图像信息熵统计直方图自适应均衡化算法(Contrast-reduced Adaptive Entropy Histogram Equalization, CRAEHE)。以各个灰度级信息熵统计值为基础,先将原图像分割成若干个子区域,对每个子区域的灰度信息熵统计值进行阈值截取,补充到子区域内各个灰度级上,再对子区域进行信息熵直方图均衡化处理。采用USC-SIPI和CBSD432数据集图像,用图像灰度均值、标准差、平均梯度、信息熵等参数对实验样本进行质量评价。结果文中算法处理结果较原图灰度均值下降了7.94%,标准差平均提高了52.22%,信息熵平均提高了19.86%,平均梯度提高了57.19%。结论文中算法增强了选自数据集里的过亮图像的细节,并使图像整体细节与质量都得到了改善,该算法的处理结果较其他处理实验样本的主观质量提升明显,对光照强度适应范围广。     

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.     

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.     

Contrast enhancement using real coded genetic algorithm based modified histogram equalization for gray scale images

Histogram equalization is a well‐known technique used for contrast enhancement. The global HE usually results in excessive contrast enhancement because of lack of control on the level of contrast enhancement. A new technique named modified histogram equalization using real coded genetic algorithm (MHERCGA) is aimed to sweep over this drawback. The primary aim of this paper is to obtain an enhanced method which keeps the original brightness. This method incorporates a provision to have a control over the level of contrast enhancement and applicable for all types of image including low contrast MRI brain images. The basic idea of this technique is to partition the input image histogram into two subhistograms based on a threshold which is obtained using Otsu's optimality principle. Then, bicriteria optimization problem is formulated to satisfy the aforementioned requirements. The subhistograms are modified by selecting optimal contrast enhancement parameters. Finally, the union of the modified subhistograms produce a contrast enhanced and details preserved output image. While developing an optimization problem, real coded genetic algorithm is applied to determine the optimal value of contrast enhancement parameters. This mechanism enhances the contrast of the input image better than the existing contemporary HE methods. The quality of the enhanced brain image indicates that the image obtained after this method can be useful for efficient detection of brain cancer in further process like segmentation, classification, etc. The performance of the proposed method is well supported by the contrast enhancement quantitative metrics such as discrete entropy and natural image quality evaluator. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Imaging Syst Technol, 25, 24–32, 2015     

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.