EE-583: Digital Image Processing

Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD

Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Arithmetical and Logic Operations
Arithmetic/logic operations are performed on a pixel by pixel basis
between two or more images.
Basic arithmetic operations are: Gray-value point operations are used
including the following functions
Operation Definition preferred data type
ADD c = a + b integer
SUB c = a - b integer
MUL c = a * b integer or floating point
DIV c = a / b floating point
LOG c = log(a) floating point
EXP c = exp(a) floating point
SQRT c = sqrt(a) floating point
TRIG. c = sin/cos/tan(a) floating point
INVERT c = (2
B
- 1) - a integer
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Arithmetical and Logic Operations
Basic logic operations are: Binary operations are used including the
following functions
Image a Image b
b . a b
a b +
Note: The images can be binary (bi-level) images. Each pixel is 1 (True) or 0 (False).
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Arithmetical and Logic Operations
Mask
(region of interest)
mask
Note: The images can be gray-level images. Each pixel is an 8-bit
binary number. Bit by bit operation is used.
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Image Subtraction
The difference image between two images f(x.y) and h(x,y) can be
expressed by:
) , ( ) , ( ) , ( y x h y x f y x g =
f(x,y) h(x,y)
g(x,y)= f(x,y) - h(x,y)
Contrast stretched g(x,y)
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Image Subtraction
Image subtraction is used in medical imagining called mask mode
radiography.
The initial image is captured and used as the mask image, h(x,y). Then after
injecting a contrast material into the bloodstream the mask image is subtracted
from the resulting image f(x,y) to give an enhanced output image g(x,y).
h(x,y) g(x,y) = f(x,y) - h(x,y)
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Image Averaging
Consider a noisy image, , formed by the addition of noise
to an original image f(x,y):
( , ) x y q
( , ) g x y
( , ) ( , ) ( , ) g x y f x y x y q = +
Consider an uncorrelated noise with zero average value.
An enhanced image , , can be formed by adding K different
noisy images.
( , ) g x y
1
1
( , ) ( , )
K
i
i
g x y g x y
K
=
=

The expected value of : g
{ ( , )} ( , ) E g x y f x y =
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Image Averaging
Then variances:
2 2
( , ) ( , )
1
g x y x y
K
q
o o =
( , ) ( , )
1
g x y x y
K
q
o o =
Standard deviations in the average image:
As K increases the variability (noise) of the pixel values at each
location (x,y) decreases.
In other words, the average image, , approaches the input
image f(x,y) as the number of noisy images used in the averaging
operation increases.
( , ) g x y
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Image Averaging
Original im.
One of the noisy images
Average of K=16 noisy images
K=8
K=64
Average of K=128 noisy images
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Image Averaging
K = 8
difference = original - averaged
( , ) ( , ) ( , ) d x y f x y g x y =
K = 16
K = 64
K = 128
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
2002 R. C. Gonzalez & R. E. Woods
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Spatial Filtering
Spatial filtering refers to some neighborhood operations working with the values
of the image pixels in the neighborhood and the corresponding values of a
subimage that has the same dimensions as the neighborhood.
This subimage is called, a filter, mask, kernel, template or a window. The values
in a filter is referred to as coefficients.
The filtering can be performed in
spatial domain.
frequency domain (we will study later) and
There are two main types of spatial domain filtering
linear spatial filtering (convolution filter/mask/kernel) and
nonlinear spatial filtering .
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
2002 R. C. Gonzalez & R. E. Woods
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Spatial Filtering
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
2002 R. C. Gonzalez & R. E. Woods
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Linear Spatial Filtering
Using a 3 x 3 mask shown in the previous slide the response, R, of a linear
filtering with the filter mask at point (x,y) in the image is:
( 1, 1) ( 1, 1) ( 1, 0) ( 1, ) ...
(0, 0) ( , ) ... (1, 0) ( 1, ) (1,1) ( 1, 1)
R f x y f x y
f x y f x y f x y
e e
e e e
= + +
+ + + + + + +
In general, linear filtering of an image of size M x N with a filter mask of size
m x n is given by:
( , ) ( , ) ( , )
a b
s a t b
g x y s t f x s y t e
= =
= + +

where a =(m - 1)/2, b =(n - 1)/2
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Linear Spatial Filtering
Linear spatial filtering is often called convolution operation and the filter mask
is also referred to as convolution mask.
Response, R, of a m x n mask at any point (x,y) in the image can be
formulated by:

=
=
+ + + =
mn
i
i i
mn mn
z
z z z R
1
2 2 1 1
...
e
e e e

=
=
9
1 i
i i
z R e
Where, es are the mask coefficients and
zs are the image pixel values.
Given a 3 x 3 mask below the response at any point (x,y) is:
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Smoothing Spatial Filters
Smoothing filters are used for noise reduction and blurring operations. Blurring
can be used as a preprocessing step for other image processing operations.
There are two main types of Smoothing filters:
Smoothing Linear Filters
Smoothing Nonlinear Filters
Smoothing Linear Filters/ Averaging Filters
The response of a smoothing linear spatial filter is simply the average of the
pixels contained in the neighborhood of the filter mask.
These kind of filters are called averaging filters or lowpass filters.
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Convolution and Correlation
Convolution involves calculating the weighted sum of a neighborhood of pixels.
The weights are taken from a convolution kernel. Each value from the
neighborhood of pixels is multiplied with its opposite on the matrix. For example,
the top-left of the neighbor is multiplied by the bottom-right of the kernel. All
these values are summed up to calculate the result of the convolution.
a b
s a t b
g( x, y ) ( s,t ) f ( x s, y t )
g f
= =
=
= -

Consider a 3x3 neighborhood. Given a convolution kernel (mask) , you need to
rotate the mask with 180
o
as follows,
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
1 -1 -1
1 2 -1
1 1 1
2 2 2 3
2 1 3 3
2 2 1 2
1 3 2 2
Rotate 180
o
1 -1 -1
1 2 -1
1 1 1
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Convolution operation
Convolution kernel,
Input Image f
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Convolution: Step 1
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
1 -2 -1
2 4 -1
1 1 1
1 -1 -1
1 2 -1
1 1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 4 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
3 -1 -2
2 4 -2
1 1 1
1 -1 -1
1 2 -1
1 1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
Convolution: Step 2
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 4 4 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
3 -3 -1
3 4 -2
1 1 1
1 -1 -1
1 2 -1
1 1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
Convolution: Step 3
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 4 4 -2 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
1 -3 -3
1 6 -2
1 1 1
1 -1 -1
1 2 -1
1 1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
Convolution: Step 4
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 4 4
9
-2 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
2 -2 -1
1 4 -1
2 2 1
1 -1 -1
1 2 -1
1 1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
Convolution: Step 5
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
6
4 4
9
-2 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
1 -2 -2
3 2 -2
2 2 2
1 -1 -1
1 2 -1
1 1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
Convolution: Step 6
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
12
7
6
4
8
6
14
4
5 9
5 9
5 11
-2 5
Final output Image, g
Convolution: Final Result
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Convolution and Correlation
Correlation is nearly identical to convolution with only a minor difference,
where instead of multiplying the pixel by the opposite in the kernel, you multiply
it by the equivalent (i.e. top-left multiplied by top-left).
a b
s a t b
g( x, y ) ( s,t ) f ( x s, y t )
g f
= =
= + +
=

Consider a 3x3 neighborhood. Given a correlation kernel (mask) , and input
image f,
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
1 -1 -1
1 2 -1
1 1 1
2 2 2 3
2 1 3 3
2 2 1 2
1 3 2 2
Dont rotate use it directly
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Correlation operation
orrelation kernel,
Input Image f
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Correlation: Step 1
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
1 2 1
-2 4 1
-1 -1 1
1 1 1
-1 2 1
-1 -1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 10 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
3 1 2
-2 4 2
-1 -1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
Correlation: Step 2
1 1 1
-1 2 1
-1 -1 1
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 10 10 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
3 3 1
-3 4 2
-1 -1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
Correlation: Step 3
1 1 1
-1 2 1
-1 -1 1
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 10 10 15 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
1 3 3
-1 6 2
-1 -1 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
Correlation: Step 4
1 1 1
-1 2 1
-1 -1 1
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2 10 10
3
15 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
2 2 1
-1 4 1
-2 -2 1
Input Image, f output Image, g
Correlation: Step 5
1 1 1
-1 2 1
-1 -1 1
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
4
10 10
3
15 5
3
2
1
2
2
1
3
2
3 2
2 1
2 2
3 2
1 2 2
-3 2 2
-2 -2 2
Input Image, f output Image, g
Correlation: Step 6
1 1 1
-1 2 1
-1 -1 1
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
4
11
4
10
4
4
6
10
11 3
5 -5
9 7
15 5
Final output Image, g
Correlation: Final Result
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Smoothing Linear Filters/ Averaging Filters
The idea behind smoothing filters is to replace the value of every pixel in an
image by the average of the gray levels defined by the filter mask.
Random noise consists of sharp transitions in gray levels. So, the most obvious
application is noise reduction.
The undesirable effects of the averaging filters is the blurring of edges.
box filter
weighted average filter
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Smoothing Linear Filters/ Averaging Filters
The general implementation of an M x N image with a weighted averaging filter
of size m x n is given by:
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
a b
s a t b
a b
s a t b
( s,t ) f ( x s, y t )
g( x, y )
( s,t )
= =
= =
+ +
=


Sum of the mask coefficients, which is constant.
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Smoothing Linear Filters/ Averaging Filters
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
original
5x5 mask
15x15 mask
3x3 mask
9x9 mask
35x35 mask
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Smoothing Linear Filters/ Averaging Filters
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
original blurred thresholded
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Order-Statistics Filters
The order-statistics filters are nonlinear spatial filters whose response is based
on the ordering/ranking of the pixels contained image area encompassed by the
filter.
The center pixel is replaced with the value determined by the ranking result.
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
The best known ordered statistics filter is the median filter.
The median filter is excellent for random noise reduction with considerably less
blurring than the linear smoothing filters.
Median filters is very effective for impulsive noise which is also called salt-and-
pepper noise (noise introducing white and black dots on the image)
Given a 3x3 neighborhood having (10, 20 ,20 ,20 ,100 ,20 ,20 ,25 ,15) gray level
values. The sorted values of the neighborhood will be: (10, 15 ,20 ,20 ,20 ,20 ,20
,25 ,100) and the center pixel will be forced to the median value which is 20.
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Order-Statistics Filters
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Corrupted by
salt and pepper noise
Averaging filter
median filter
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Sharpening Spatial Filters
Sharpening is the operation to highlight fine details or enhance the detals that
has been blurred.
Blurring is based on the averaging in a neighborhood which is analogous to
integration. Therefore the sharpening could be accomplish by differentiation.
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
) ( ) 1 ( x f x f
x
f
+ =
c
c
Second order derivative can be defined by:
) ( 2 ) 1 ( ) 1 (
)) 1 ( ) ( ( ) ( ) 1 (
2
2
x f x f x f
x f x f x f x f
x
f
+ + =
+ =
c
c
The derivative of a digital function is defined in terms of differences, where a
first order derivative of a one dimensional function f(x) is:
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Sharpening Spatial Filters
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
The effect of the first and second-order derivatives on an image are:
First-order derivative
- Zero in flat segments.
- Nonzero at ramps.
Second-order derivative
- Zero in Flat segments.
- Nonzero at the beginning and
the end of ramps.
- Zero in along ramps.
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Second-order Derivatives for Enhancement - The Laplacian
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Second-order derivative is used to construct a Laplacian filter mask. Laplacian
is an isotropic filter where the response of the filter is independent of the
direction of the discontinuities in the image.
Isotropic filters are rotation invariant, which means that if you rotate and filter
the image or if you filter and then rotate the image you get the same result.
2
2
2
2
2
y
f
x
f
f
c
c
+
c
c
= V
The operator is a linear operator and can be expressed in discrete form in x-
direction by:
) , ( 2 ) , 1 ( ) , 1 (
2
2
y x f y x f y x f
x
f
+ + =
c
c
Given an image f(x,y) the Laplacian operator is defined by:
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The operator can be expressed in discrete form in y-direction by:
) , ( 2 ) 1 , ( ) 1 , (
2
2
y x f y x f y x f
y
f
+ + =
c
c
Second-order Derivatives for Enhancement - The Laplacian
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Then,2-D Laplacian is:
| |
2
( 1, ) ( 1, ) ( , 1) ( , 1)
4 ( , )
f f x y f x y f x y f x y
f x y
V = + + + + +

EE-583: Digital Image Processing

Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The filter masks used to implement the digital Laplacian:
Second-order Derivatives for Enhancement - The Laplacian
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
considers x and y
coordinates
Isotropic results for 90
o
considers x, y
and two diagonal
coordinates.
Isotropic for 45
o
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The Laplacian operator highlights gray level discontinuities and de-emphasizes
the slowly varying gray-levels.
The result of Laplacian operator will give edge lines and other discontinuities
on a dark and featureless background.
The background features can be recovered and sharpening effect can be
preserved by adding the Laplacian image to the original image.
Second-order Derivatives for Enhancement - The Laplacian
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain

V +
V
=
) , ( ) , (
) , ( ) , (
) , (
2
2
y x f y x f
y x f y x f
y x g
If the center coefficient of the
Laplacian mask is negative
If the center coefficient of the
Laplacian mask is positive
Depending on the choice of the Laplacian coefficients the following criteria is
used for enhancement:
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Second-order Derivatives for Enhancement - The Laplacian
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Original image
Laplacian image
) , (
2
y x f V
) , ( y x f
Enhanced image
) , ( ) , (
2
y x f y x f V +
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
Second-order Derivatives for Enhancement - The Laplacian
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Enhanced image
using the mask with
Center coefficient -4
Enhanced image
using the mask with
Center coefficient -8
Original image
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The first derivatives in image processing are implemented by using the
magnitude of the gradient.
The gradient of f at coordinates (x,y) is defined by the two-dimensional column
vector:
The First Derivatives for Enhancement - The Gradient
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
(
(
(
(

c
c
c
c
=
(

= V
y
f
x
f
G
G
y
x
f
The magnitude of this vector, is referred to as the gradient, which is :
| |
2
2
2 / 1
2 2
) (
|
|
.
|

\
|
c
c
+
|
.
|

\
|
c
c
= + = V = V
y
f
x
f
G G mag f
y x
f
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The magnitude of the gradient can be approximated by using the absolute
values instead of squares and square roots, which is cheaper to compute and still
preserves changes in the gray levels.
The First Derivatives for Enhancement - The Gradient
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
y x
G G f + ~ V
If we consider a 3x3 filter mask then an approximation around the center pixel
will be as follows:
) 2 ( ) 2 (
) 2 ( ) 2 (
7 4 1 9 6 3
3 2 1 9 8 7
z z z z z z
z z z z z z G G f
y x
+ + + + +
+ + + + = + ~ V
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The First Derivatives for Enhancement - The Gradient
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
The above masks are called the Sobel operators and can be used to implement
gradient operation.
The idea behind using weight value of 2 is to achieve some smoothing by giving
more importance to the center point.
The mask on the left approximates the derivative in x-direction (row 3- row 1).
The mask on the right approximates the derivative in y-direction (col 3- col 1).
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The First Derivatives for Enhancement - The Gradient
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Defects are more visible
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The First Derivatives for Enhancement - The Gradient
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Edge Detection: Consider the following image and the respective sobel operators
Horizontal Operator Vertical Operator
If the image is convolved(or correlated) by using the sobel operators given
above. Then,
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The First Derivatives for Enhancement - The Gradient
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Edge Detection:
g
h
Horizontal Sobel Operator
highlights the horizontal
edges
g
v
Vertical Sobel Operator
highlights the vertical
edges
EE-583: Digital Image Processing
Prepared By: Dr. Hasan Demirel, PhD
The First Derivatives for Enhancement - The Gradient
Image Enhancement in Spatial Domain
Edge Detection:
2 2
) , ( ) , ( ) , (
v h
y x g y x g y x g + =
The Gradient for each pixel can be defined to extract
edges.
Edges are detected by combining horizontal and vertical
images obtained using respective Sobel operators.