Lecture 05

Image Enhancement
in Frequency Domain
Contents

In this lecture we will look at image enhancement in

frequency domain:
 1-D and 2-D Fourier transforms
 1-D and 2-D discrete Fourier transform
 Lowpass filters: ideal, Butterworth, Gaussian
 Highpass filters: ideal, Butterworth, Gaussian
 Important properties of Fourier transform

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Background

 Any function that periodically repeats itself can be

expressed as the sum of sines and/or cosines of
different frequencies, each multiplied by a different
coefficient (Fourier series).
 Even functions that are not periodic (but whose area
under the curve is finite) can be expressed as the
integral of sines and/or cosines multiplied by a
weighting function (Fourier transform).
 The purpose of the Fourier transform is to represent a
signal as a linear combination of sinusoidal signals of
various frequencies.

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Background

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 Fourier transform

 The one-dimensional Fourier transform and its

inverse
• Fourier transform (continuous case)

F (u )   f ( x)e  j 2ux dx where j   1 e j  cos   j sin 



• Inverse Fourier transform: f ( x)   F (u )e j 2ux du
 The two-dimensional Fourier transform and its inverse
• Fourier transform (continuous case)
 
F (u , v)    f ( x, y )e  j 2 ( ux  vy ) dxdy
 
• Inverse Fourier transform:
 
f ( x, y )    F (u , v)e j 2 ( ux  vy ) dudv
 

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Discrete Fourier transform

 The one-dimensional discrete Fourier transform and its

inverse

• Discrete Fourier transform (DFT)

M 1
1  j 2ux / M
F (u ) 
M
 f ( x )e
x 0
for u  0,1,2,..., M  1

• Inverse discrete Fourier transform (IDFT):

M 1
f ( x)   F (u )e j 2ux / M for x  0,1,2,..., M  1
u 0

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Fourier transform and frequency domain

 F(u) can be expressed in polar coordinates:

F (u )  F (u ) e j (u )
1
 2
where F (u )  R (u )  I (u ) 2

2 (magnitude or spectrum)
 I (u ) 
 (u )  tan 1   (phase angle or phase spectrum)
 R (u ) 
• R(u): the real part of F(u)
• I(u): the imaginary part of F(u)

 Power spectrum: 2
P(u )  F (u )  R 2 (u )  I 2 (u )

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1D- Fourier transform-Example

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1D Fourier transform-Examples

 The transform of a constant function is a DC value only.

 The transform of a delta function is a constant.

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1D Fourier transform-Examples

 The transform of an infinite train of delta functions spaced

by T is an infinite train of delta functions spaced by 1/T.

 The transform of a cosine function is a positive delta at the

appropriate positive and negative frequency.

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1D Fourier transform-Examples

 The transform of a sin function is a negative complex delta

function at the appropriate positive frequency and a
negative complex delta at the appropriate negative
frequency.

 The transform of a square pulse is a sinc function.

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2D discrete Fourier transform

 Discrete Fourier transform (2D-DFT)

M 1 N 1
1
F (u , v)   f ( x, y )e  j 2 (ux / M  vy / N )
MN x 0 y 0

for u  0,1,2,..., M  1, v  0,1,2,..., N  1

 Inverse discrete Fourier transform (2D-IDFT)

M 1 N 1
f ( x, y )   F (u , v)e j 2 ( ux / M  vy / N )
u 0 v 0

for x  0,1,2,..., M  1, y  0,1,2,..., N  1

- u, v : the transform or frequency variables
- x, y : the spatial or image variables

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Fourier transform-frequency domain

 We define the Fourier spectrum, phase angle, and

power spectrum as follows:
1
 2 2
F (u, v)  R (u , v)  I (u , v) 
2 ( spectrum)
 I (u, v) 
1
 (u , v)  tan   (phase angle)
 R (u, v) 
2
P (u,v)  F (u , v)  R 2 (u, v)  I 2 (u , v) (power spectrum)

• R(u,v): the real part of F(u,v)

• I(u,v): the imaginary part of F(u,v)

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Amplitude spectrum

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2D DFT with different functions

Sine wave Its DFT

Rectangle
Its DFT

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2D DFT with Different Functions

2D Gaussian Its DFT

function

Impulses
Its DFT

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Properties of Fourier transform

 Some properties of Fourier transform:

M N

 f ( x, y )(1) x y
  F (u  , v  ) (shift)
2 2
M 1 N 1
1
F (0,0) 
MN
 f ( x, y)
x 0 y 0
(average)

F (u, v)  F * (u ,v) (conujgate symmetric)

F (u , v)  F (u,v) (symmetric)

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Properties of Fourier transform: Shift

shift
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Properties of Fourier transform: Separable

The 2D DFT F(u,v) can be obtained by

1. taking the 1D DFT of every row of image f(x,y), F(u,y),
2. taking the 1D DFT of every column of F(u,y)

(a) f(x,y) (b) F(u,y) (c) F(u,v)

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Properties of Fourier transform: Rotation

DFT

DFT

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Properties of Fourier transform:
Linear combination

A
DFT

B
DFT

0.25 * A
+ 0.75 * B
DFT

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Properties of Fourier transform: Expansion

A
DFT

B DFT

Expanding the original image by a factor of n (n=2), filling

the empty new values with zeros, results in the same DFT.
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Filtering in frequency domain

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Some Basic Filters

 Multiply all values of F(u,v) by the filter function (notch filter):

 0 if (u , v )  ( M / 2, N / 2)
H (u , v)  
1 otherwise.
• All this filter would do is set F(0,0) to zero (force the average
value of an image to zero) and leave all frequency components of
the Fourier transform untouched.

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Some Basic Filters

Lowpass filter

Highpass filter

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Filtering in spatial and frequency domain

 The discrete convolution of two functions f(x,y) and

h(x,y) of size MXN is defined as
M 1 N 1
1
f ( x, y )  h ( x, y ) 
MN
 f (m, n)h( x  m, y  n)
m 0 n 0

 Let F(u,v) and H(u,v) denote the Fourier

transforms of f(x,y) and h(x,y), then

f ( x, y )  h( x, y )  F (u , v) H (u , v)
f ( x, y )h( x, y )  F (u , v)  H (u , v)

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 Gaussian filter

 Let H(u) denote a frequency domain, Gaussian filter

function given the equation
 u 2 / 2 2
H (u )  Ae
where  : the standard deviation of the Gaussian curve.
 The corresponding filter in the spatial domain is
2 2 2 x 2
h( x)  2 Ae

 Note: Both the forward and inverse Fourier transforms of

a Gaussian function are real Gaussian functions.

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Gaussian filter

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Gaussian filter

 One very useful property of the Gaussian function is that both it and
its Fourier transform are real valued; there are no complex values
associated with them.
 In addition, the values are always positive. So, if we convolve an
image with a Gaussian function, there will never be any negative
output values to deal with.
 There is also an important relationship between the widths of a
Gaussian function and its Fourier transform. If we make the width
of the function smaller, the width of the Fourier transform gets larger.
This is controlled by the variance parameter 2 in the equations.
 These properties make the Gaussian filter very useful for lowpass
filtering an image. The amount of blur is controlled by 2. It can be
implemented in either the spatial or frequency domain.
 Other filters besides lowpass can also be implemented by using two
different sized Gaussian functions.

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Smoothing Frequency-Domain Filters

 The basic model for filtering in the frequency domain

G (u , v )  H (u , v) F (u , v)
where F(u,v): the Fourier transform of the image to be
smoothed
H(u,v): a filter transfer function

 Smoothing is fundamentally a lowpass operation in the

frequency domain.
 There are several standard forms of lowpass filters (LPF).
• Ideal lowpass filter
• Butterworth lowpass filter
• Gaussian lowpass filter

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Ideal lowpass filters (ILPFs)

 The simplest lowpass filter is a filter that “cuts off” all

high-frequency components of the Fourier transform
that are at a distance greater than a specified
distance D0 from the origin of the transform.
 The transfer function of an ideal lowpass filter
1 if D (u , v)  D0
H (u , v)  
0 if D(u , v)  D0
where D(u,v) : the distance from point (u,v) to the
center of their frequency rectangle
1

D(u , v)  (u  M / 2) 2  (v  N / 2) 
2 2

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Ideal lowpass filters (ILPFs)

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Ideal lowpass filters (ILPFs)

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Ideal Lowpass Filters

• As the filter radius

increases, less and less
power is removed, resulting
in less severe blurring.

• Ring is evident even the

image in which only 2% of
the total power was
removed.

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Butterworth lowpass filters (BLPFs) with
order n
1
H (u , v) 
1  D(u , v) / D0 
2n

• The filter’s smooth transition between low and high frequencies

• No ringing visible in any of the image processed with BLPFs

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Butterworth lowpass
filters

Butterworth lowpass
filters (BLPFs)

n=2
D0=5,15,30,80,and 230

• No ringing visible in any

of the image processed
with BLPFs

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Gaussian lowpass filters (GLPFs)
 D 2 ( u , v ) / 2 D02
H (u , v)  e

• The GLPFs did not achieve as much smoothing as the BLPFs.

• No ringing for the GLPFs.

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Gaussian lowpass
filters (FLPFs)

Gaussian Lowpass
Filters (FLPFs)

D0=5,15,30,80, and 230

• No ringing for the

GLPFs.

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Additional examples of lowpass filtering

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Sharpening frequency domain filter

H hp (u , v)  1  H lp (u , v)
Ideal highpass filter
0 if D (u , v )  D0
H (u , v)  
1 if D (u , v)  D0

Butterworth highpass filter

1
H (u , v ) 
1  D0 / D (u , v)
2n

Gaussian highpass filter

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

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Highpass Filters Spatial Representations

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Ideal highpass filters

0 if D (u , v)  D0
H (u , v)  
1 if D (u , v)  D0

• Ringing problems are evident in (a) and (b)

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Butterworth highpass filters
1
H (u , v) 
1  D0 / D(u , v)
2n

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Gaussian highpass filters

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

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Laplacian in Frequency Domain

 The Laplacian filter

H (u , v)  (u 2  v 2 )
 Shift the center: Frequency
domain
 M N 
H (u , v )   (u  ) 2  (v  ) 2 
 2 2 

Spatial domain

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g ( x, y )  f ( x, y )   2 f ( x, y )
where
 2 f ( x, y ) : the Laplacian - filtered
image in the spatial domain

For display
purposes only

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Additional properties of 2D Fourier
transform

 Periodicity, symmetry, and back-to-back properties

shift

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Additional properties of 2D Fourier
Transform

 Separability

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Implementation More on Periodicity

Convolution
f ( x )  h( x ) 
M 1
1
M
 f ( m) h( x  m)
m 0

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 extend

extend

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Important Properties of 2-D Fourier
Transform

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Important Properties of 2-D Fourier
Transform

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Important Properties of 2-D Fourier
Transform

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Important Properties of 2-D Fourier
Transform

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Summary

We have looked at Fourier transform and its applications

in image enhancement:
 Fourier transform and discrete Fourier transform for
image.
 Ideal, Butterworth and Gaussian filters.
 Image filtering in frequency domain.

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