Bi-histogram equalization using modified histogram bins

The shifting of image mean brightness and the domination of high-frequency bins during histogram equalization (HE) often result in the deteriorating quality of enhanced images and a considerable amount of information loss. This study proposes a novel approach based on bi-histogram equalization to improve its abilities in preserving information entropy and mean brightness. The proposed technique, named Bi-histogram Equalization using Modified Histogram Bins (BHEMHB), segments the input histogram based on the median brightness of an image and alters the histogram bins before HE is applied. Histogram segmentation enables mean brightness preservation, whereas the modification of histogram bins restricts the enhancement rate, thus minimizing the domination effects of high-frequency histogram bins. Simulation results show that BHEMHB significantly outperforms its peers in preserving the details and mean brightness of an image. The output image is visually pleasant with a natural appearance.     

一种区域多直方图红外图像增强方法*

直方图均衡是一种简单有效的红外图像增强技术,但存在着细节信息损失较大的缺陷。为改进这一缺陷,使直方图均衡在增强图像对比度的同时不损失灰度级别,并能增强图像细节特征,提出一种基于区域的multi-HE红外图像增强方法。该方法通过聚类算法将图像分割成多目标区域,据此将直方图分割成多个子图,运用多直方图均衡化对图像进行处理,从而达到在不同目标范围内的图像增强。经过实验验证,该算法能有效地抑制背景区的过增强,扩大了目标区的灰度范围,增强细节部分。     

Gaussian mixture modeling of histograms for contrast enhancement

The current major theme in contrast enhancement is to partition the input histogram into multiple sub-histograms before final equalization of each sub-histogram is performed. This paper presents a novel contrast enhancement method based on Gaussian mixture modeling of image histograms, which provides a sound theoretical underpinning of the partitioning process. Our method comprises five major steps. First, the number of Gaussian functions to be used in the model is determined using a cost function of input histogram partitioning. Then the parameters of a Gaussian mixture model are estimated to find the best fit to the input histogram under a threshold. A binary search strategy is then applied to find the intersection points between the Gaussian functions. The intersection points thus found are used to partition the input histogram into a new set of sub-histograms, on which the classical histogram equalization (HE) is performed. Finally, a brightness preservation operation is performed to adjust the histogram produced in the previous step into a final one. Based on three representative test images, the experimental results demonstrate the contrast enhancement advantage of the proposed method when compared to twelve state-of-the-art methods in the literature.     

利用累积分布函数的亮度保持均衡算法

为了解决对比增强算法中的亮度保持问题,提出一个有效的基于直方图的亮度保持和对比增强算法.首先利用累积分布函数计算关键点,这些关键点对亮度保持有重要影响;然后基于关键点将直方图分割为几个子直方图,并对每个子直方图进行均衡;最后将均衡之后的子直方图合并,得到增强的图像.实验结果表明,与已有的一些基于直方图的算法相比,该算法...     

基于小波分频和二次均衡的图像增强算法

传统的图像增强算法在增强图像的同时也增强了图像的噪声信号,导致信息熵下降.结合小波变换多尺度、多分辨率的特点和直方图均衡的优势,提出一种基于小波分频和二次均衡的高亮度图像增强算法.首先利用小波变换将图像分解为低频分量和高频分量,然后仅对低频分量作直方图均衡处理,再由均衡后的低频分量与各高频分量进行小波重构,最后对重构的图像再次进行直方图均衡处理.实验结果表明,该算法对于亮度较高的灰度图像有较好的增强效果.     

Adaptive Image Enhancement based on Bi-Histogram Equalization with a clipping limit

A new approach based on Bi-Histogram Equalization is presented to enhance grayscale images. The proposed Adaptive Image Enhancement based on Bi-Histogram Equalization (AIEBHE) technique divides the input histogram into two sub-histograms, which are at the threshold of the histogram median for mean brightness preservation. Histogram clipping is performed to control the enhancement rate, and then the clipped sub-histograms are equalized and integrated to obtain the enhanced image. The novelty of AIEBHE is its flexibility in choosing the clipping limit that automatically selects the smallest value among histogram bins, mean, and median values, resulting in the conservation of a greater amount of information in the image. Automatic selection of the clipping limit addresses the issue of over-emphasizing of high frequency bins during histogram equalization. Simulation results reveal that AIEBHE technique outperforms other histogram-equalization-based enhancement techniques in terms of detail preservation and mean brightness preservation.     

浅谈图像增强的直方图处理及其MATLAB实现

图像增强是图像处理的一个重要分支,它对图像整体或局部特征能有效地改善;直方图是图像处理中最重要的基本概念之一,它能有效地用于图像增强.本文主要讨论了直方图均衡化和规定化处理的图像增强技术,并给出了相关的推导公式和算法;同时用MATLAB语言加以实现,给出标准的数字图像在各种处理前与处理后的对照图像、具体算法、实验结果及直方图.结果表明,用直方图均衡化和规定化的算法,能将原始图像密集的灰度分布变得比较稀疏,使处理后的图像视觉效果得以改善,提高其对比度.     

Segment dependent dynamic multi-histogram equalization for image contrast enhancement

Histogram equalization (HE) method proved to be a simple and most effective technique for contrast enhancement of digital images. However it does not preserve the brightness and natural appearance of the images, which is a major drawback. To overcome this limitation, several Bi- and Multi-HE methods have been proposed. Although the Bi-HE methods significantly enhance the contrast and may preserve the brightness, the natural appearance of the images is not preserved as these methods suffer with the problem of intensity saturation. While Multi-HE methods are proposed to further maintain the brightness and natural appearance of images, but at the cost of contrast enhancement. In this paper, two novel Multi-HE methods for contrast enhancement of natural images, while preserving the brightness and natural appearance of the images, have been proposed. The technique involves decomposing the histogram of an input image into multiple segments based on mean or median values as thresholds. The narrow range segments are identified and are allocated full dynamic range before applying HE to each segment independently. Finally the combined equalized histogram is normalized to avoid the saturation of intensities and un-even distribution of bins. Simulation results show that, for the variety of test images (120 images) the proposed method enhances contrast while preserving brightness and natural appearance and outperforms contemporary methods both qualitatively and quantitatively. The statistical consistency of results has also been verified through ANOVA statistical tool.     

Image contrast enhancement for preserving mean brightness without losing image features

Histogram equalization is a well-known and effective technique for improving the contrast of images. However, the traditional histogram equalization (HE) method usually results in extreme contrast enhancement, which causes an unnatural look and visual artifacts of the processed image. In this paper, we propose a novel histogram equalization method that is composed of an automatic histogram separation module and an intensity transformation module. First, the proposed histogram separation module is a combination of the proposed prompt multiple thresholding procedure and an optimum peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) calculation to separate the histogram in small-scale detail. As the final step of the proposed process, the use of the intensity transformation module can enhance the image with complete brightness preservation for each generated sub-histogram. Experimental results show that the proposed method not only retains the shape features of the original histogram but also enhances the contrast effectively.     

一种非线性变换的双直方图红外图像增强方法

红外图像具有噪声大、对比度低等特点,红外图像增强是红外探测、识别和跟踪应用中的核心问题之一。在红外图像增强技术中,直方图均衡方法简单、有效,但存在细节信息损失较大的缺陷。提出一种对红外图像采用非线性变换分段直方图的增强方法,该方法对红外图像进行非线性变换,提高较暗区域的像素亮度,根据前背景区域特征将直方图分成两段,进行双直方图均衡化处理,对前景和背景分别进行图像的增强。经过实验验证,该算法能有效提高图像亮度,扩大目标区的灰度范围,增强前景图像的细节部分。     

保持亮度的多峰值直方图均衡算法

现有的直方图均衡算法在增强图像对比度的同时,输出图像的亮度与输入图像无关,并且在均衡区域产生亮度饱和现象,提出了一种新的直方图均衡算法.以亮度保持的双直方图均衡算法(BBHE)为基础,改进其对子图像的分类方式:根据直方图对图像进行多峰值分解,得到一系列不同范围的子图像,然后对每一个子图像在其相应的灰度范围内进行直方图均衡,最后合并这些子图像的均衡结果.实验结果表明,直方图均衡新算法不仅在保持了输出图像亮度的同时,而且非常有效的解决了在原图像均衡区域产生的亮度饱和问题对图像的影响.     

Contrast enhancement and brightness preserving of digital mammograms using fuzzy clipped contrast-limited adaptive histogram equalization algorithm

A novel fuzzy logic and histogram based algorithm called Fuzzy Clipped Contrast-Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (FC-CLAHE) algorithm is proposed for enhancing the local contrast of digital mammograms. A digital mammographic image uses a narrow range of gray levels. The contrast of a mammographic image distinguishes its diagnostic features such as masses and micro calcifications from one another with respect to the surrounding breast tissues. Thus, contrast enhancement and brightness preserving of digital mammograms is very important for early detection and further diagnosis of breast cancer. The limitation of existing contrast enhancement and brightness preserving techniques for enhancing digital mammograms is that they limit the amplification of contrast by clipping the histogram at a predefined clip-limit. This clip-limit is crisp and invariant to mammogram data. This causes all the pixels inside the window region of the mammogram to be equally affected. Hence these algorithms are not very suitable for real time diagnosis of breast cancer. In this paper, we propose a fuzzy logic and histogram based clipping algorithm called Fuzzy Clipped Contrast-Limited Adaptive Histogram Equalization (FC-CLAHE) algorithm, which automates the selection of the clip-limit that is relevant to the mammogram and enhances the local contrast of digital mammograms. The fuzzy inference system designed to automate the selection of clip-limit requires a limited number of control parameters. The fuzzy rules are developed to make the clip limit flexible and variant to mammogram data without human intervention. Experiments are conducted using the 322 digital mammograms extracted from MIAS database. The performance of the proposed technique is compared with various histogram equalization methods based on image quality measurement tools such as Contrast Improvement Index (CII), Discrete Entropy (DE), Absolute Mean Brightness Coefficient (AMBC) and Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR). Experimental results show that the proposed FC-CLAHE algorithm produces better results than several state-of-art algorithms.     

用于数字图像直方图处理的一种二值映射规则

直方图表示数字图像中每一灰度级与其出现频数间的统计关系，它可给出图像的概貌性描述，而基于直方图修改技术的灰度变换是图像增强的实用而有效的处理方法之一。直方图处理包含均衡化和规定化两种技术。均衡化的目的是使图像像素均匀地分布在所有灰度级上；规定化的目的是将原图像的直方图转变为规定的直方图，以便突出一定灰度范围内的图像。为了进一步提高直方图处理算法的有效性，首先分析了现有的几种数字图像直方图均衡化和规定化算法存在的缺点，然后提出了一种新的二值映射规则(BML)，该规则基于最优控制原理，以直方图误差最小为准则进行灰度映射，实验证明．该规则算法简单，无论是用于直方图均衡化处理．还是用于直方图规定化处理，均较其他映射规则都更为有效。     

Thresholded and Optimized Histogram Equalization for contrast enhancement of images

A novel technique, Thresholded and Optimized Histogram Equalization (TOHE) is presented in this paper for the purpose of enhancing the contrast as well as to preserve the essential details of any input image. The central idea of this technique is to first segment the input image histogram into two using Otsu’s threshold, based on which a set of weighing constraints are formulated. A decision is made whether to apply those constraints to any one of the sub-histograms or to both, with respect to the input image’s histogram pattern. Then, those two sub-histograms are equalized independently and their union produces a contrast enhanced output image. While formulating the weighing constraints, Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) is employed to find the optimal constraints in order to optimize the degree of contrast enhancement. This technique is proved to have an edge over the other contemporary methods in terms of Entropy and Contrast Improvement Index.     

保持图像亮度的自适应局部对比度增强

目前保持亮度的局部直方图均衡算法用于对比度增强时,大多以亮度均值和中值为图像的亮度分割点,这些方法能较好地保持图像的亮度,但同时也会产生局部过增强。为此提出了一种亮度误差最小的自适应局部对比度增强算法,根据亮度均值绝对误差自适应的选择最佳亮度分割点,然后用保持亮度的双直方图均衡算法对被分割的子图像进行均衡,最后用滤波器消除块效应。实验结果表明,该算法不仅保持了输入图像的亮度,同时也实现了局部对比度增强。     

The Implementation of Optimization Methods for Contrast Enhancement

The performances of the multivariate techniques are directly related to the variable selection process, which is time consuming and requires resources for testing each possible parameter to achieve the best results. Therefore, optimization methods for variable selection process have been proposed in the literature to find the optimal solution in short time by using less system resources. Contrast enhancement is the one of the most important and the parameter dependent image enhancement technique. In this study, two optimization methods are employed for the variable selection for the contrast enhancement technique. Particle swarm optimization (PSO) and artificial bee colony (ABC) optimization methods are implemented to the histogram stretching technique in parameter selection process. The results of the optimized histogram stretching technique are compared with one of the parameter independent contrast enhancement technique; histogram equalization. The results show that the performance of the optimized histogram stretching is better not only in distorted images but also in original images. Histogram equalization degraded the original images while the optimized histogram stretching has no effect due to being an adaptive solution.     

一种基于卫星图像的增强方法

直方图均衡化是图像增强的一种有效方法,其基本思想是调整图像的灰度分布。线性拉伸的方法对图像进行增强处理,提高了图像的解译能力。本文从合成图像直方图均衡化和线性增强的优点入手,给出了一种直方图均衡化和线性增强相结合的改进算法,通过对算法中调节参数的选择来获取更好的图像增强效果,该算法避免了图像过亮等现象,改善了图像质量,实验验证了该算法更为有效。     

频域内分位数的蒙古族家具纹样增强算法

为了使灰度图像的细节更加突出、可视性增强,提出一种基于离散余弦变换与分位数算法结合的图像增强方法。通过离散余弦变换提取出图像的低频分量,图像高频分量保持不变。对低频分量进行分位数的细分,使参与增强过程低频分量的增强级别具有选择性,再分别对这些子直方图进行直方图均衡化,使图像对比度增强。将处理后的低频分量与未处理的高频分量进行逆变换,得到增强后的图像。选取蒙古族家具纹样,与传统的自适应直方图均衡化算法及方向自适应插值算法相比较,提出的方法在蒙古族纹样增强方面具有更好的视觉效果,其评价指标也有显著提高。     

Image Contrast Enhancement by Constrained Local Histogram Equalization

Histogram equalization is a widely used image contrast enhancement method. While global histogram equalization enhances the contrast of the whole image, local histogram equalization can enhance many image details by taking different transformation of the same gray level at different places in the original image. However, the local histogram equalization process often results in unacceptable modification of the original image appearance. In this paper, a constrained local histogram equalization method is proposed to balance the conflicting requirements: enhancement of the image details and the maintenance of the overall image appearance. Our method uses the variational form of histogram equalization so that a constraint condition, which forces the local gray level transformations to change continuously in the spatial domain, can be introduced into the equalization process. Experimental results of different kinds of images show the effect of our method.     

自适应动态峰值剪切直方图均衡化

传统的直方图均衡化算法在增强图像的同时可能会引入一些视觉退化效应,如一些图像的部分区域出现过度增强。为了克服这个缺点,已有一些灰度均值保持算法,但是这些算法并不能很好地保持图像处理前后灰度均值的稳定性。提出了一种自适应动态峰值剪切直方图均衡化算法：使用滤波器对原图像的直方图进行滤波操作,并且根据图像的信息来确定分割区间及区间数目;对分割的区间进行重新映射;对区间的直方图进行剪切操作,然后分别地进行均衡化处理,并对处理后的图像进行灰度归一化操作。实验结果表明,该算法可以很好地在保持原图像均值的前提下实现图像增强。