Piecewise-Linear Transformation Functions: ACS-7205-001 Digital Image Processing (Fall Term, 2011-12) Page 87

ACS-7205-001 Digital Image Processing (Fall Term, 2011-12) Page
87
Piecewise-Linear Transformation Functions

A complementary approach to the abovementioned methods is to
use piecewise linear functions.

Contrast stretching

One of the simplest piecewise linear functions is a contrast-
stretching transformation.

Contrast-stretching transformation is a process that expands the
range of intensity levels in an image so that it spans the full
intensity range of the recording medium or display device.

Example:


88
Intensity-level slicing

Highlighting a specific range of intensities in an image often is of
interest. The process, often called intensity-level slicing, can be
implemented in several ways, though basic themes are mostly used.

One approach is to display in one value all the values in the range
of interest and in another all other intensities, as shown in Figure
3.11 (a).

Another approach is based on the transformation in Figure 3.11(b),
which brightens (or darkens) the desired range of intensities but
leaves all other intensities levels in the image unchanged.


89
Example 3.3: Intensity-level slicing

Figure 3.12 (b) shows the result of using a transformation of the
form in Figure 3.11 (a), with the selected band near the top of the
scale, because the range of interest is brighter than the background.

Figure 3.12 (c) shows the result of using the transformation in
Figure 3.11 (b) in which a band of intensities in the mid-gray
region around the mean intensity was set to black, while all other
intensities were unchanged.


90
Bit-plane slicing

Instead of highlighting intensity-level ranges, we could highlight
the contribution made to total image appearance by specific bits.

Figure 3.13 shows an 8-bit image, which can be considered as
being composed of eight 1-bit planes, with plane 1 containing the
lowest-order bit of all pixels in the image and plane 8 all the
highest-order bits.

Example:


91
Note that each bit plane is a binary image.

For example, all pixels in the border have values 1 1 0 0 0 0 1 0,
which is the binary representation of decimal 194. Those values
can be viewed in Figure 3.14 (b) through (i).

Decomposing an image into its bit planes is useful for analyzing
the relative importance of each bit in the image.

Example:


92
3.3 Histogram Processing

The histogram of a digital image with intensity levels in the range
[0, 1] L
is a discrete function
( )
k k
h r n =
, where
k
r
is the kth
intensity value and
k
n
is the number of pixels in the image with
intensity
k
r
.

It is common practice to normalize a histogram by diving each of
its components by the total number of pixels in the image, denoted
by MN, where M and N are the row and column dimensions of the
image.

A normalized histogram is given by

, for . ( ) 0,1, 2,..., 1
k
k
n
p r k L
MN
= =

( )
k
p r
can be seen as an estimate of the probability of occurrence
of intensity level
k
r
in an image. The sum of all components of a
normalized histogram is equal to 1.

Histograms are the basic for numerous spatial domain processing
techniques.

Example:

Figure 3.16, which is the pollen image of Figure 3.10 shown in
four basic intensity characteristics: dark, light, low contrast, and
high contrast, shows the histograms corresponding to these image.

The vertical axis corresponds to value of
( )
k k
h r n =
or
( ) /
k k
p r n MN =
if the values are normalized.

93


94
Histogram Equalization

We consider the continuous intensity values and let the variable r
denote the intensities of an image. We assume that r is in the
range
[0, 1] L
.

We focus on transformations (intensity mappings) of the form

( ) 0 1 s T r r L =
(3.3-1)

that produce an output intensity level s for every pixel in the
input image having intensity r. Assume that

(a)
( ) T r
is a monotonically increasing function in the
interval
0 1 r L
, and

(b)
0 ( ) 1 T r L
for
0 1 r L
.

In some formations to be discussed later, we use the inverse

1
( ) 0 1 r T s s L
=
(3.3-2)

in which case we change condition (a) to

(a ') ( ) T r
is a strictly monotonically increasing function in
the interval
0 1 r L
.

Figure 3.17 (a) shows a function that satisfies conditions (a) and
(b).


95

From Figure 3.17 (a), we can see that it is possible for multiple
values to map to a single value and still satisfy these two
conditions, (a) and (b). That is, a monotonic transformation
function can perform a one-to-one or many-to-one mapping,
which is perfectly fine when mapping from r to s.

However, there will be a problem if we want to recover the values
of r uniquely from the mapped values.

As Figure 3.17 (b) shows, requiring that
( ) T r
be strictly
monotonic guarantees that the inverse mappings will be single
valued. This is a theoretical requirement that allows us to derive
some important histogram processing techniques.

The intensity levels in an image may be viewed as random
variables in the interval
[0, 1] L
. A fundamental descriptor of a
random variable is its probability density function (PDF).

Let
( )
r
p r
and
( )
s
p s
denote the probability density functions of r
and s. A fundamental result from basic probability theory is that if
( )
r
p r
and
( ) T r
are known, and
( ) T r
is continuous and
differentiable over the range of values of interest, then the PDF of
the transformed variable s can be obtained using the formula


96

( ) (r)
s r
dr
p s p
ds
=
(3.3-3)

A transformation function of particular importance in image
processing has the form

0
(r) ( 1) ( )
r
r
s T L p d = =
(3.3-4)

where
is a dummy variable of integration.

The right side of (3.3-4) is recognized as the cumulative distribution
function of random variable r . Since PDFs always are positive, the
transformation function of (3.3-4) satisfies condition (a) because the
area under the function cannot decreases as r increases.

When the upper limit in (3.3-4) is
( 1) r L =
, the integral
evaluates to 1 (the area under a PDF curve always is 1), so the
maximum value of s is
( 1) L
and condition (b) satisfies as well.

Using (3.3-6) and recalling the Leibnizs rule that saying the
derivative of a definite integral with respect to its upper limit is
the integrand evaluated at the limit, we have

0
( )
( 1) ( )
( 1) ( )
r
r
r
ds dT r
dr dr
d
L p d
dr
L p r

=
(
=
(

=
(3.3-5)

Substituting this result for
/ dr ds
in (3.3-3), yields


97
( ) ( )
1
( )
( 1) ( )
1
0 1
1
s r
r
r
dr
p s p r
ds
p r
L p r
s L
L
=
=
(3.3-6)

which shows the that
( )
s
p s
always is uniform, independently of
the form of
( )
r
p r
.

Example 3.4: Illustration of (3.3-4) and (3.3.6)

Suppose that the continuous intensity values in an image have
the PDF

( )
2
2
0 1
1 ( )
0
for
otherw ise
r
r
r L
L p r


98
From (3.3-4),

0
( ) ( 1) ( )
r
r
s T r L p d = =
(3.3-4)
2
0
2
( 1) 1
r
r
d
L L
= =

Consider an image in which
10 L =
, and suppose that a pixel at
( , ) x y
in the input image has intensity
3 r =
. Then, the pixel at
( , ) x y
in the new image is
2
( ) / 9 1 s T r r = = =
.

We can versify that the PDF of the intensities in the new image
is uniform by substituting
( )
r
p r
into (3.3-6) and using the facts
that
( )
2
/ 1 s r L =
, r is nonnegative, and 1 L > :

( ) ( )
s r
dr
p s p r
ds
=
(3.3-6)
1
2
2

( 1)
r ds
L dr
(
=
(

1
2
2
2

( 1) 1
r d r
L dr L
(
=
(

2
2 ( 1) 1
( 1) 2 1
r L
L r L
= =


99
For discrete values, we deal with probabilities (histogram values)
and summations instead of probability density functions and
integrals.

The probability of occurrence of intensity level
k
r
in a digital
image is approximated by

( ) 0,1, 2,..., 1
k
r k
n
p r k L
MN
= =
(3.3-7)

where
MN
is the total number of pixels in the image,
k
n
is the
number of pixels having intensity
k
r
, and L is the number of
possible intensity levels in the image.

The discrete form of the transformation in
0
( ) ( 1) ( )
r
r
s T r L p d = =
(3.3-4)
is
0
0
( ) ( 1) ( )
( 1)
0,1, 2,..., 1
k
k k r j
j
k
j
j
s T r L p r
L
n k L
MN
=
=
= =
= =
(3.3-8)

The transformation (mapping)
( )
k
T r
in (3.3-8) is called a histogram
equalization transformation.


100
Example 3.5: A simple illustration of history equalization.

Suppose that a 3-bit image (
8 L =
) of size
64 64
pixels
(
4096 MN =
) has the intensity distribution shown in Table 3.1.

The histogram of our hypothetical image is sketched in Figure
3.19 (a).

By using (3.3-8), we can obtain values of the histogram equalization
function:

0
0 0 0
0
( ) 7 ( ) 7 ( ) 1.33
r j r
j
s T r p r p r
=
= = = =
,

1
1 1 0 1
0
( ) 7 ( ) 7 ( ) 7 ( ) 3.08
r j r r
j
s T r p r p r p r
=
= = = + =
,

101

2
4.55 s =
,
3
5.67 s =
,
4
6.23 s =
,
5
6.65 s =
,
6
6.86 s =
, and
7
7.00 s =
. This function is shown in Figure 3.19 (b).

Then, we round them to the nearest integers:

0 1 2 3
1.33 1 3.08 3 4.55 5 5.67 6 s s s s = = = =
4 5 6 7
6.23 6 6.65 7 6.86 7 7.00 7 s s s s = = = =

which are the values of the equalized histogram.

Observe that there are only five distinct levels:

0
1 s
: 790 pixels
1
3 s
: 1023 pixels
2
5 s
: 850 pixels
3
6 s
: 985 (656+329) pixels
5
7 s
: 448 (245+122+81) pixels
Total: 4096

Dividing these numbers by
4096 MN =
would yield the
equalized histogram shown in Figure 3.19 (c).

Since a histogram is an approximation to probability density
function, and no new allowed intensity levels are created in the
process, perfectly flat histograms are rare in practical
applications of histogram equalization.

Therefore, in general, it cannot be proved that discrete histogram
equalization results in a uniform histogram.


102
Given an image, the process of histogram equalization consists
simply of implementing

0
( 1)

k
k j
j
L
s n
MN
=
=

, (3.3-8)

which is based on information that can be extracted directly from
the given image, without the need for further parameter
specifications.

The inverse transformation from
s
back to r is denoted by

1
( ) 0,1, 2,..., 1
k k
r T s k L
= =
(3.3-9)

Although the inverse transformation is not used in the histogram
equalization, it plays a central role in the histogram-matching
scheme.

Example 3.6: Histogram equalization

The left column in Figure 3.20 shows the four images from
Figure 3.16.

The center column in Figure 3.20 shows the result of performing
histogram equalization on each of the images in left.

The histogram equalization did not have much effect on the
fourth image because the intensities of this image already span
the full intensity scale.

103


104
Figure 3.21 shows the transformation functions used to
generate the equalized images in Figure 3.20.

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is a dummy variable of integration.

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