The histogram of an image plots the number of pixels at each intensity value and provides a representation of pixel concentration versus image brightness. It shows the frequency distribution of pixel intensities. Histogram equalization is a technique that transforms the histogram of an image such that the output image has a uniform distribution of intensities across the histogram, increasing contrast to improve visibility of details. This process calculates a transformation function that maps the intensity values of the input image to produce an output image with a flat histogram, spreading out the most frequent intensity values.
The histogram of an image plots the number of pixels at each intensity value and provides a representation of pixel concentration versus image brightness. It shows the frequency distribution of pixel intensities. Histogram equalization is a technique that transforms the histogram of an image such that the output image has a uniform distribution of intensities across the histogram, increasing contrast to improve visibility of details. This process calculates a transformation function that maps the intensity values of the input image to produce an output image with a flat histogram, spreading out the most frequent intensity values.
The histogram of an image plots the number of pixels at each intensity value and provides a representation of pixel concentration versus image brightness. It shows the frequency distribution of pixel intensities. Histogram equalization is a technique that transforms the histogram of an image such that the output image has a uniform distribution of intensities across the histogram, increasing contrast to improve visibility of details. This process calculates a transformation function that maps the intensity values of the input image to produce an output image with a flat histogram, spreading out the most frequent intensity values.
The histogram of an image plots the number of pixels at each intensity value and provides a representation of pixel concentration versus image brightness. It shows the frequency distribution of pixel intensities. Histogram equalization is a technique that transforms the histogram of an image such that the output image has a uniform distribution of intensities across the histogram, increasing contrast to improve visibility of details. This process calculates a transformation function that maps the intensity values of the input image to produce an output image with a flat histogram, spreading out the most frequent intensity values.
The histogram of an image is a plot of the Gray _levels values versus the number of pixels at that value. A histogram appears as a graph with "brightness" on the horizontal axis from 0 to 255 (for an 8-bit) intensity scale) and "number of pixels "on the vertical axis. The histogram gives us a convenient –easy -to -read representation of the concentration of pixels versus brightness of an image. Example: Image (left) has 256 distinct gray levels (8 bits) Histogram (right) shows frequency (how many times) each gray level occurs
Many cameras display real time histograms of scene
Helps avoid taking over‐exposed pictures Also easier to detect types of processing previously applied to image
1|Marwa R. Where rk is the Kth intensity level in the interval [0 , L-0] and nk is the number of pixels in the image whose intensity level is rK The value of L is 255 for images of class unit8 , 65535 for images of class unit16 , and 1.0 for images of class double.
E.g. K = 16, 10 pixels have intensity value = 2
Histograms: only statistical information No indication of location of pixels
Different images can have same histogram , 3 images below have same histogram
Half of pixels are gray, half are white
• Same histogram = same statisics • Distribution of intensities could be different
2|Marwa R. So, a histogram for a grayscale image with intensity values in range
would contain exactly K entries
E.g. 8‐bit grayscale image, K = 28 = 256 Each histogram entry is defined as: h(i) = number of pixels with intensity I for all 0 < i < K. E.g.: h(255) = number of pixels with intensity = 255 Formal definition
Feature of histogram 1. Histograms help detect image acquisition issues 2. Problems with image can be identified on histogram • Over and under exposure • Brightness • Contrast • Dynamic Range 3. Point operations can be used to alter histogram. E.g. • Addition • Multiplication • Exp and Log • Intensity Windowing (Contrast Modification) 4. Image enhancements 5. Image statistic 6. Image compression 7. Image segmentation 3|Marwa R. Four basic image types and their corresponding histograms: • Dark • Light • Low contrast • High contract Histograms commonly viewed in plots as
4|Marwa R. Image Contrast
The contrast of a grayscale image indicates how easily objects in the image can be distinguished • High contrast image: many distinct intensity values • Low contrast: image uses few intensity values
Histograms and Contrast
Good Contrast? Widely spread intensity values + large difference between min and max intensity values
Contrast Equation Many different equations for contrast exist Examples:
5|Marwa R. Histograms and Dynamic Range
Dynamic Range: Number of distinct pixels in image
high dynamic rang means very bright and very dark parts in a single image (many different values)
6|Marwa R. Histogram Equalization
Histogram equalization is an automatic enhancement technique which produces an
output (enhanced) image that has a near uniformly distributed histogram. For continuous function , the intensity (Gray level) in an image may be viewed as a random variable with its probability density function (PDF). the PDF at a Gray level (r) represents the expected proportion (likelihood) of occurrence of Gray level (r) in the image. a transformation function has the form
Where (w) is a variable of integration. the right side of this equation is called the cumulative distribution function (CDF) of random variable (r). for discrete Gray level values, we deal with probabilities (histogram values) and summations instead of probity density function and integrals. thus , the transform will be
This transformation is called histogram equalization or histogram linearization
7|Marwa R. 8|Marwa R. 9|Marwa R. 10 | M a r w a R . Example : suppose that a 3-bit image (L=8) of size 64 x 64 pixels has the Gray level (intensity) distribution shown in the table below
Perform histogram equalization on this image , and draw its normalized histogram, transformation function , and the histogram of the equalized image
Solution:
We compute the normalized histogram
11 | M a r w a R . Then we find the transformation function
12 | M a r w a R . We round the values of s to the nearest integer
These are the values of the equalized histogram. Note that there are only five Gray levels.
Thus, the histogram of the equalized image can be drawn as follows:
13 | M a r w a R . The next figure shows the results of performing histogram equalization on dark , light, low-contrast, and high-contrast Gray images
left column original images. centre column corresponding histogram equalized images. right column histograms of the images in the centre column
