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Image Smoothening and Sharpening using Frequency Domain Filtering

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International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Engineering Research (IJETER)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April (2017) www.ijeter.everscience.org

Image Smoothening and Sharpening using Frequency

Domain Filtering Technique
Swati Dewangan
M.Tech. Scholar, Computer Networks, Bhilai Institute of Technology, Durg, India.

Anup Kumar Sharma

M.Tech. Scholar, Computer Networks, Bhilai Institute of Technology, Durg, India.

Abstract – Images are used in various fields to help monitoring The content of this paper is organized as follows: Section I
processes such as images in fingerprint evaluation, satellite gives introduction to the topic and projects fundamental
monitoring, medical diagnostics, underwater areas, etc. Image background. Section II describes the types of image
processing techniques is adopted as an optimized method to help enhancement techniques. Section III defines the operations
the processing tasks efficiently. The development of image
applied for image filtering. Section IV shows results and
processing software helps the image editing process effectively.
Image enhancement algorithms offer a wide variety of approaches discussions. Section V concludes the proposed approach and
for modifying original captured images to achieve visually its outcome.
acceptable images. In this paper, we apply frequency domain 1.1 Digital Image Processing
filters to generate an enhanced image. Simulation outputs results
in noise reduction, contrast enhancement, smoothening and Digital image processing is a part of signal processing which
sharpening of the enhanced image. uses computer algorithms to perform image processing on
Index Terms – Digital Image Processing, Fourier Transforms, digital images. It has numerous applications in different studies
High-pass Filters, Low-pass Filters, Image Enhancement. and researches of science and technology. The fundamental
steps in Digital Image processing are image acquisition, image
1. INTRODUCTION enhancement, image analysis, image reconstruction, image
Image processing is a form of signal processing in which the restoration, image compression, image segmentation, image
input is an image, such as a photograph or video frame and the recognition, and visualization of image.
output may be either an image or a set of characteristics or The main sources of noise in digital image processing come
parameters related to the image. Most image-processing under image acquisition and image transmission. Image
techniques involve treating the image as a two-dimensional Enhancement basically improves the visual quality of the
signal and applying standard signal-processing techniques. It image by providing clear images for human observer and for
deals with the improvement of pictorial information for human machine in automatic image processing techniques. Digital
interpretation and processing of image for storage, image processing has fundamental classes depending on their
transmission and representation for machine perception. operations:
Image processing can be defined as analysis of picture using A. Image enhancement
techniques that can basically identify region of interest from all
those images in bitmapped graphic format that have been Image enhancement deals with contrast enhancement, spatial
scanned or captured with digital camera. Image enhancement filtering, frequency domain filtering, edge enhancement and
techniques aims at realizing the improvement in the quality of noise reduction. This project briefly shows the theoretical and
a given image. An image can be enhanced by changing any practical approaches in frequency domain.
attribute of the image. There exist many techniques that can
B. Image analysis
enhance an image without spoiling it. Enhancement methods
can be broadly divided into two categories i.e. spatial domain It deals with the statistical details of an image. It is possible to
technique and frequency domain technique. examine the information of an image in detail. This information
helps in image restoration and enhancement. One of the
Spatial domain deals with direct manipulation of pixels of an
representations of the information is the histogram
image whereas the frequency domain filters the image by
representation. During image analysis, the main tasks include
modifying the Fourier Transform of an image. In this paper,
image segmentation, feature extraction and object
main focus is laid on enhancing an image using frequency
classification.
domain technique. The objective to show how a digital image
is being processed generate a better -quality image.

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International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Engineering Research (IJETER)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April (2017) www.ijeter.everscience.org

C. Image restoration The enhancement technique differs from one field to another
according to its objective. Advancement in the technology
In this class, the image is corrected using different correction
brings the development in the digital image processing
methods like inverse filtering and feature extraction in order to
techniques in both domains:
restore an image to its original form.
A. Spatial domain.
D. Image compression
The term spatial domain refers to the image plane itself, and
It deals with the compression of the size of the image so that it
approaches in this category are based on direct manipulation of
can easily be stored electronically. The compressed images are
pixel values of an image. It enhances the whole image in a
then decompressed to their original forms. The image
uniform manner. The value of the pixels with coordinates (x,
compression and decompression can either lose their size by
y) in an enhanced image ‘F’ is the result of performing some
maintaining high quality or preserves the original data size
operation on the pixels with the neighbourhood of (x, y) in the
without losing size.
input image ‘f’. This method is straightforward and are chiefly
E. Image synthesis utilized in real time applications. But it lags in producing
adequate robustness and imperceptibility requirement.
This class of digital image processing is well known now-a-
days in the film and game industry and is very advanced in 3- B. Frequency domain.
dimensional and 4-dimensional productions. In both cases the
The frequency domain processing techniques are based on
images and videos scenes are constructed using certain
modifying the Fourier transform of an image. The basic idea in
techniques of visualization.
using this technique is to enhance the image by manipulating
1.2 Image Enhancement the transform coefficient of the image, such as Discrete Fourier
Transform (DFT), Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT), and
Image enhancement is basically improving the interpretability Discrete Cosine Transform (DCT). This methods advantages
or perception of information in images for human viewers and includes low complexity of computations, ease of viewing and
providing `better' input for other automated image processing
manipulating the frequency composition of the image and the
techniques. The principal objective of image enhancement is to
easy applicability of special transformed domain properties.
process a given image so that the result is more suitable than
the original image for a specific application. 3. IMAGE ENHANCEMENT USING FREQUENCY
DOMAIN TECHNIQUE
Image enhancement simply means, transforming an image f
into image g using a transformation function T. Let the values In frequency domain methods, the image is first transferred into
of pixels in images f and g are denoted by r and s respectively. frequency domain. All the enhancement operations are
Then the pixel values r and s are related by the expression, performed on the Fourier transform of the. Image enhancement
function in the frequency domain is denoted by the expression:
s = T(r)
g(x, y) = T[f(x, y)]
Where, T is a transformation that maps a pixel value r into a
pixel value s. where f(x, y) is the input image, g(x, y) is an enhanced image
formed by the result of performing some operation, T on the
2. IMAGE ENHANCEMENT TECHNIQUES frequency component of the transformed image.
3.1 Filtering in the Frequency Domain
The procedures required to enhance an image using frequency
domain technique are:
i. Transform the input image into the Fourier domain.
ii. Multiply the Fourier transformed image by a filter.
iii. Take the inverse Fourier transform of the image to get
the resulting enhanced image.
3.2 Basic Steps for Filtering in the Frequency Domain:
1. Given an input image f(x, y) of size M x N.
2. Compute F (u, v), the DFT of the image.
Fig. 1. Types of Enhancement Technique

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International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Engineering Research (IJETER)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April (2017) www.ijeter.everscience.org

3. Multiply F (u, v) by a filter function H(u, v), i.e., G(u, v) = with content in other frequency bands. The general formula for
H(u, v)F(u, v) filtering is given as:
4. Compute inverse DFT of the G(u, v). G(u, v) = F(u, v).H(u, v)
5. Obtain the real part of the result. where the H(u, v) is the transfer function, and F(u, v) is the
Fourier transform of the image function. The G(u, v) is the
Step-1 Input Image
filtered final function.
An input image may be defined as a two-dimensional function,
In all the filters, it is important to find the right filter function
f(x, y), where x and y are spatial (plane) coordinates, and the
H(u, v) as it amplifies some frequencies and suppresses certain
amplitude of f at any pair of coordinates (x, y) is called the
frequency components in an image. There are many filters that
intensity or grey level of the image at that point.
are used for blurring/smoothing, sharpening and edge detection
in an image. Based on the property of using the frequency
domain the image filters are broadly classified into two
categories:
1. Low-pass filters / Smoothing filters.
2. High-pass filters / Sharpening filters.

Fig. 2. Frequency Domain Filtering Operations

Step-2 Compute Fourier Transform of the input image.
The image f(x, y) of size M x N will be represented in the
frequency domain F(u, v) using Discrete Fourier Transform
(DFT). The concept behind the Fourier transform is that any
waveform that can be constructed using a sum of sine and
cosine waves of different frequencies. The Discrete Fourier
Transform (DFT) of an image takes a discrete signal and
transforms it into its discrete frequency domain representation.
The Fourier transform F(u), of a single variable continuous
function f(x), is defined by:
Fig. 3. Types of Frequency Domain Filters
A. Image Smoothing (Low-pass Frequency Domain Filters)

where, u represents the frequency and x represents time/space. A low-pass filter that attenuates (suppresses) high frequencies
The exponential in the above formula can be expanded into while passing the low frequencies which results in creating a
sines and cosines with the variables u and v determining these blurred (smoothed) image. It leaves the low frequencies of the
frequencies. Fourier transform relatively unchanged and ignores the high
frequency noise components. Three main low-pass filters are:
Step-3 Filtering of the Fourier Transformed image.
i. Ideal low-pass filter (ILPF)
A filter is a tool designed to suppress certain frequency
components of an input image and return the image in a An ideal low pass filter deals with the removal of all high
modified format. They are used to compensate for image frequency values of the Fourier transform that are at a distance
imperfections such as noise, and insufficient sharpness. By greater than a specified distance from the origin of the
filter design we can create filters that pass signals with transformed image. The filter transfer function for the Ideal
frequency components in some bands, and attenuate signals low-pass filter is given by:

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International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Engineering Research (IJETER)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April (2017) www.ijeter.everscience.org

In the above formulas, D0 is cut-off frequency, a specified

1 if D(u, v)  D0
H (u, v)   nonnegative number. D(u, v) is the distance from point (u, v) to
0 if D(u, v)  D0 the center of the filter.


D(u, v)  (u  M / 2) 2  (v  N / 2) 2 1/ 2 Step-4 Compute Inverse Fourier Transform to get the enhanced
image.
ii. Butterworth low-pass filter (BLPF) We then need to convert data back to real image to use in any
applications. After the needed frequencies removed it is easy to
The filter transfer function for the Butterworth low-pass filter
return back to the spatial domain. Function represented by
is given by:
1 Fourier transform can be completely reconstructed by an
H (u, v) 
1  D(u, v) / D0  inverse transform with no loss of information
2n

iii. Gaussian low-pass filter (GLPF) For this the Inverse Fourier Transform of the filtered image is
calculated by the following equation:
The filter transfer function for the Gaussian low-pass filter is
given by:
H(u,v)  e  D
2
(u,v)/ 2 D02

B. Image Sharpening (High-pass Frequency Domain Filters) 4. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS

Sharpening of an image in the frequency domain can be
achieved by high pass filtering process which attenuates
(suppress) low frequency components without disturbing high
frequency information in the Fourier transform of the image.
The high-pass filter Hhp is often represented by its relationship
to the low-pass filter (Hlp) as:
Hhp (u, v) =1- Hlp (u, v)
i. Ideal High-Pass Filter (IHPF)
The ideal high pass filter simply cuts off all the low frequencies
lower than the specified cut-off frequency. The filter transfer
function is given as:

0 if D(u, v)  D0
H (u, v)  
1 if D(u, v)  D0
Fig. 4. Original Input Image
ii. Butterworth High-pass Filter
The transfer function of Butterworth high-pass filter of order n
and with a specified cut-off frequency is given by:

H (u, v)  1  e  D
2
( u ,v ) / 2 D02

iii. Gaussian High Pass Filters

The transfer function of the Gaussian high-pass filter with cut-
off frequency locus at a distance 0 D from the origin given by:

1
H (u, v) 
1  D0 / D(u , v)
2n

Fig. 5. Fourier Transform of an Image

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International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Engineering Research (IJETER)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April (2017) www.ijeter.everscience.org

Hence Gaussian low-pass filter is used more instead of the

ILPF/BLPF.

Fig. 6. Ideal Low-Pass Filtered Image

In Fig. 6., filtering center component is responsible for
blurring. The circular components are responsible for the
ringing effects. The severe ringing effect in the blurred images Fig. 9. Ideal High-Pass Filtered Image
is a characteristic of ideal filters.
The severe ringing effect in Fig. 9. is a characteristic of ideal
filters. It is due to the discontinuity in the filter transfer
function. Ringing effect in this filter is so severe that it
produces distorted and thickened object boundaries.

Fig. 7. Butterworth Low-Pass Filtered Image

In Fig. 7., the BLPF with less number of orders does not have
any ringing effect. As the order increases BLPF results in
increasing ringing effects. Less ringing effect is due to the Fig. 10. Butterworth High-Pass Filtered Image
filter’s smooth transition between low and high frequencies.
Boundaries in Fig. 10. are much less distorted compared to
IHPF. This is more appropriate for image sharpening than the
ideal HPF, since this not introduce ringing.

Fig. 8. Gaussian Low-Pass Filtered Image

In Fig. 8., there is no ringing effect of the GLPF. Ringing Fig. 11. Gaussian High-Pass Filtered Image
artifacts are not acceptable in fields like medical imaging.

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International Journal of Emerging Technologies in Engineering Research (IJETER)
Volume 5, Issue 4, April (2017) www.ijeter.everscience.org

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