Digital Image Processing

Lecture # 3
Spatial Enhancement-I

1
Image Enhancement

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Image Enhancement

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Image Enhancement

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 Image Enhancement

Process an image so that the result is more suitable than the original image for a
specific application

 Image Enhancement Methods

 Spatial Domain: Direct manipulation of pixels in an

image
 Frequency Domain: Process the image by modifying the
Fourier transform of an image
This Chapter – Spatial Domain

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Types of image enhancement
operations

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 Types of image enhancement
operations
 Point/Pixel operations
Output value at specific coordinates
(x,y) is dependent only on the input
value at (x,y)

 Local operations
The output value at (x,y) is dependent
on the input values in the
neighborhood of (x,y)

 Global operations
The output value at (x,y) is dependent
on all the values in the input image

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 Basic Concepts
 Most spatial domain enhancement
operations can be generalized as:
g ( x, y)  T  f ( x, y )

f (x, y) = the input image

g (x, y) = the processed/output image
T = some operator defined over some neighbourhood of (x,
y)

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 Point Processing

 In a digital image, point = pixel

 Point processing transforms a
pixel’s value as function of its
value alone;
 It does not depend on the values
of the pixel’s neighbors.
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 Point Processing
 Neighborhood of size 1x1:
 g depends only on f at (x,y)
 T: Gray-level/intensity transformation/ mapping function

s  T (r )
 r = gray level of f at (x,y)
 s = gray level of g at (x,y)

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 Point Processing using Look-up Tables
A look-up table (LUT)
implements a functional
mapping.
255

E.g.: index value

... ...
output value

101 64
102 68
127

103 69
104 70
105 70
106 71
0

0 127 255 ... ...

input value input output

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Point Processing using Look-up Tables

input output
...0 ... 0
cell index

contents
64
a pixel with ... ...32 is mapped to
this value this value
128 128
... ...
192 224
... ...
255 255

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 POINT PROCESSING

Contrast Stretching Thresholding

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 Point Processing Example:
Thresholding

1.0 r > threshold

s=
0.0 r <= threshold

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 Point Processing Example:
Thresholding
 Segmentation of an object of interest from a
background

1.0 r > threshold

s=
0.0 r <= threshold

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Point Processing Example:
Intensity Scaling

s  T (r )  a.r

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 Point Processing Transformations
 There are many different kinds of grey level
transformations
 Three of the most
common are shown
here
 Linear

 Negative/Identity

 Logarithmic

 Log/Inverse log

 Power law

 nth power/nth root

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 Point Processing Example:
Negative Images
 Reverses the gray level order
 For L gray levels, the transformation has the
form:
s  ( L  1)  r

 Negative images are useful for enhancing white or grey detail embedded in
dark regions of an image

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Point Processing Example:
Negative Images

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 Logarithmic Transformations
 The general form of the log transformation is

s  c  log(1  r )
 The log transformation maps a narrow range of low input grey level values into
a wider range of output values
 The inverse log transformation performs the opposite transformation

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 Logarithmic Transformations
 Properties
 For lower amplitudes of
input image the range of
gray levels is expanded
 For higher amplitudes of
input image the range of
gray levels is compressed

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 Logarithmic Transformations
 Application
 This transformation is suitable for the case when the
dynamic range of a processed image far exceeds the
capability of the display device (e.g. display of the
Fourier spectrum of an image)
 Also called “dynamic-range compression / expansion”

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 Logarithmic Transformations

Fourier spectrum: image values The result of log transformation

ranging from 0 to 1.5x106 with c = 1

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 Power Law Transformations
 Power law transformations have the following form

s  c  r
 Map a narrow range
of dark input values
into a wider range of
output values or vice
versa
 Varying γ gives a whole
family of curves

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 Power Law Transformations
 For < 1: Expands values of dark pixels, compress
values of brighter pixels
 For  > 1: Compresses values of dark pixels,
expand values of brighter pixels
 If =1 & c=1: Identity transformation (s = r)

 A variety of devices (image capture, printing, display)

respond according to a power law and need to be
corrected

 Gamma () correction

The process used to correct the power-law response
phenomena 27
Power Law Transformations: Gamma
Correction

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 Power Law Transformations
Contrast Enhancement

The images to the

right show a
magnetic resonance
(MR) image of a
fractured human
spine

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 Power Law Transformations
Contrast Enhancement
γ = 0.6
1
Transformed Intensities

0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Old Intensities

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 Power Law Transformations
Contrast Enhancement

γ = 0.4
1
0.9
Transformed Intensities

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Original Intensities

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 Power Law Transformations
Contrast Enhancement

γ = 0.3
1
0.9
Transformed Intensities

0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Original Intensities

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 Power Law Transformations
Contrast Enhancement

MR image of Result after Result after Result after

fractured human spine Power law Power law Power law
transformation transformation transformation
c = 1,  = 0.6 c = 1,  = 0.4 c = 1,  = 0.3
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 Power Law Transformations
Contrast Enhancement

When the γ is reduced too

much, the image begins to
reduce contrast to the
point where the image
started to have very slight
“wash-out” look.

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 Power Law Transformations
Contrast Enhancement

Image has a washed-out

appearance – needs γ > 1

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 Image Enhancement
Aerial Result of
Power law
Image
transformation
c = 1,  = 3.0
(suitable)

Result of
Power law
Result of transformation
Power law c = 1,  = 5.0
transformation (high contrast,
c = 1,  = 4.0 some regions are
(suitable) too dark)

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 Piecewise Linear Transformation
Functions
 Contrast stretching

 Intensity level slicing

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 Contrast Stretching
 Objective
 Increase the dynamic range of
the gray levels for low contrast
images
 Rather than using a well
defined mathematical
function we can use arbitrary
user-defined transforms

 If r1 = s1 & r2 = s2, no change in gray levels

 If r1 = r2, s1 = 0 & s2 = L-1, then it is a threshold function. The
resulting image is binary
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 Contrast Stretching

r1 = rmin & s1 = 0
r2 = rmax & s2 = L-1

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Contrast Stretching

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 Grey Level Slicing
Highlights range
[A,B] of gray Highlights range
levels and reduces [A,B] but
all others to a preserves all
contrast level other gray
levels

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Grey Level Slicing

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Histogram of a Grayscale Image

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 Histogram of a Grayscale Image

 Let I be a 1-band (grayscale) image.

 I(r,c) is an 8-bit integer between 0 and
255.
 Histogram, hI, of I:
 a 256-element array, hI
 hI (g) = number of pixels in I that have value g.
for g = 0,1, 2, 3, …, 255

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 HISTOGRAM
• A discrete function h(rk)=nk
– rk is the kth gray level
– nk is the number of pixels having gray level rk in the
image
• Ex:
nk

6
5
0 1 2 3 4
1 3 3 0 3
0 1 3 0 2
1
3 0 3 1 rk
0 1 2 3

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 UNIQUENESS

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 Histogram of a Grayscale Image
 Histogram of a digital image with gray levels in the range [0,L-1] is a
discrete function

h(rk )  nk
Where
 rk = kth gray level
 nk = number of pixels in the image having gray level rk
 h(rk) = histogram of an image having rk gray levels

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 Normalized Histogram
 Dividing each of histogram at gray level rk
by the total number of pixels in the image,
n
p(rk )  nk / n for k  0,1, , L 1

 p(rk) gives an estimate of the probability of

occurrence of gray level rk
 The sum of all components of a
normalized histogram is equal to 1

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 Histogram of a Grayscale Image

lower RHC: number of pixels with intensity g

black marks pixels with intensity g

16-level (4-bit) image

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 Histogram of a Grayscale Image

Black marks
pixels with
intensity g

Plot of histogram:
number of pixels with intensity g

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 Histogram of a Grayscale Image

Black marks
pixels with
intensity g

Plot of histogram:
number of pixels with intensity g

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Histogram of a Grayscale Image

hI  g   the number
of pixels in I
with graylevel g.

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 Histogram of a Color Image

 If I is a 3-band image
 then I(r,c,b) is an integer between 0 and 255.
 I has 3 histograms:
 hR(g) = # of pixels in I(:,:,1) with intensity value g
 hG(g) = # of pixels in I(:,:,2) with intensity value g
 hB(g) = # of pixels in I(:,:,3) with intensity value g

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 Histogram of a Color Image

There is one histo-

gram per color band
R, G, & B. Luminosity
histogram is from 1
band = (R+G+B)/3

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Histogram of a Color Image

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Histogram of a Color Image

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Histogram: Example

Dark Image

How would the

histograms of these
images look like?

Bright Image

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Histogram: Example
Dark image
Components of
histogram are
concentrated on
the low side of
the gray scale

Bright image
Components of
histogram are
concentrated on
the high side of
the gray scale
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 HISTOGRAM INSIGHT INTO CONTRAST

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Histogram: Example

Low Contrast Image

How would the

histograms of these
images look like?

High Contrast Image

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Histogram: Example

Low contrast image

Histogram is narrow and
centered toward the
middle of the gray scale

High contrast image

Histogram covers broad
range of the gray scale
and the distribution of
pixels is not too far from
uniform with very few
vertical lines being much
higher than the others
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 Contrast Stretching

Improve the contrast in an

image by `stretching' the
range of intensity values it
contains to span a desired
range of values, e.g. the
the full range of pixel
values

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 Contrast Stretching

If rmax and rmin are the maximum and minimum

gray level of the input image and L is the total
gray levels of output image, the transformation
function for contrast stretch will be

255
L

 L 1 
s  T (r )  (r  rmin )  


127
 max min 
r r

0
0 rmin 127 rmax255

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Contrast Stretching

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 Histogram Equalization

Histogram equalization re-assigns the intensity values of pixels in the input

image such that the output image contains a uniform distribution of intensities

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 HISTOGRAM EQUALIZATION

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 AERIAL PHOTOGRAPH OF THE PENTAGON

Resulting image uses more of dynamic range.

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Resulting histogram almost, but not completely, flat.
The Probability Distribution Function
of an Image
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Let A   hI  g 
g 0

Note that since hI  g  is the number of pixels in

I with value g ,
A is the number of pixels in I . That is if I is
R rows by C columns then A  R  C.

Then, This is the probability

1 that an arbitrary pixel
pI  g   hI  g 
A from I has value g.

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 The Probability Distribution Function
of an Image

• p(g) is the fraction of pixels in an image that have

intensity value g.
• p(g) is the probability that a pixel randomly selected
from the given image has intensity value g.
• Whereas the sum of the histogram h(g) over all g from
0 to 255 is equal to the number of pixels in the image,
the sum of p(g) over all g is 1.
• p is the normalized histogram of the image

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The Cumulative Distribution Function
of an Image
Let q = I(r,c) be the value of a randomly
selected pixel from I. Let g be a specific gray
level. The probability that q ≤ g is given by

g
1 g
 h  
I

PI  g    pI      hI    0
255
,
 h  
 0 A  0
I

0

where hI(γ ) is
the histogram of This is the probability that
image I. any given pixel from I has
value less than or equal to g.

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The Cumulative Distribution Function
of an Image
Let q = I(r,c) be the value of a randomly
selected pixel from I. Let g be a specific gray Also called CDF
level. The probability that q ≤ g is given by for “Cumulative
Distribution
Function”.
g

g
1 g
 h  
I

PI  g    pI      hI    0
255
,
 h  
 0 A  0
I

0

where hI(γ ) is
the histogram of This is the probability that
image I. any given pixel from I has
value less than or equal to g.

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 The Cumulative Distribution Function
of an Image
• P(g) is the fraction of pixels in an image that have intensity
values less than or equal to g.
• P(g) is the probability that a pixel randomly selected from
the given band has an intensity value less than or equal to
g.
• P(g) is the cumulative (or running) sum of p(g) from 0
through g inclusive.
• P(0) = p(0) and P(255) = 1;

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 Histogram Equalization

Task: remap image I so that its histogram is as close to

constant as possible

Let PI   
be the cumulative (probability) distribution function of I.

The CDF itself is used as the LUT.

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Histogram Equalization
The CDF (cumulative
distribution) is the
pdf
LUT for remapping.

CDF

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Histogram Equalization
The CDF (cumulative
distribution) is the
pdf
LUT for remapping.

LUT

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Histogram Equalization
The CDF (cumulative
distribution) is the
pdf
LUT for remapping.

LUT

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Histogram Equalization

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 Histogram Equalization
Luminosity

before

J  r , c   255  PI  I  r , c   .
after

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 HISTOGRAM EQUALIZATION
IMPLEMENTATION

0 0 0 0 0
1 1 1 1 4
4 5 6 6 6
8 8 8 8 9

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 HISTOGRAM EQUALIZATION
IMPLEMENTATION

0 0 0 0 0 2 2 2 2 2
1 1 1 1 4 4 4 4 4 5
4 5 6 6 6 5 5 7 7 7
8 8 8 8 9 9 9 9 9 9

Gray levels 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
Counts (h(rk)) 5 4 0 0 2 1 3 0 4 1
r0 r1 r2 r3 r4 r5 r6

Normalized h (P(rk)) 5/20 4/20

0 0
2/20 1/20 3/20 0 4/20 1/20

cdf F(rk) 5/20 9/20 11/20 12/20 15/20 19/20 20/20

sk =round(9•F(rk)) 2 4 5 5 7 9 9
s0 s1 s2 s3 s4 s5 s6

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Histogram Equalization: Example

An 8x8 image

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 Histogram Equalization: Example
Fill in the following table/histogram

Image Histogram (Non-zero values)

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Histogram Equalization: Example

Image Histogram (Non-zero values shown)

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Histogram Equalization: Example

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 Histogram Equalization: Example

Cumulative Distribution Function (cdf)

Image Histogram/Prob Mass Function

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Histogram Equalization: Example

Cumulative Distribution Function (cdf)

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Histogram Equalization: Example

Cumulative Distribution Function (cdf)

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Histogram Equalization: Example

Normalized Cumulative Distribution Function (cdf)

Divide each value by total number of

pixels (64) to get the normalized cdf

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Histogram Equalization: Example
J  r , c   255  PI  I  r , c   .

If cdf is normalized

s  round (255.cdf (r ))
If cdf is NOT normalized
cdf (r )
s  round (255. )
M N
s  round (255.  46 / 64 )
s  183

183

Original Image

89
Histogram Equalization: Example

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 Histogram Equalization: Example

Original Image Corresponding histogram (red) and cumulative

histogram (black)

Image after histogram equalization Corresponding histogram (red) and cumulative

histogram (black)
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 Histogram Equalization: Example
Equalized Histogram
Dark image
Bright image

Equalized Histogram
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 Histogram Equalization: Example
Equalized Histogram
Low contrast
High Contrast

Equalized Histogram
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 HISTOGRAM MATCHING
(SPECIFICATION)
• HISTOGRAM EQUALIZATION DOES NOT ALLOW
INTERACTIVE IMAGE ENHANCEMENT AND
GENERATES ONLY ONE RESULT: AN
APPROXIMATION TO A UNIFORM HISTOGRAM.
• SOMETIMES THOUGH, WE NEED TO BE ABLE TO
SPECIFY PARTICULAR HISTOGRAM SHAPES
CAPABLE OF HIGHLIGHTING CERTAIN GRAY-LEVEL
RANGES.

94
 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION
• THE PROCEDURE FOR HISTOGRAM-SPECIFICATION BASED
ENHANCEMENT IS:

– EQUALIZE THE LEVELS OF THE ORIGINAL IMAGE USING:

k nj
s  T (rk )  
j 0 n

n: total number of pixels,

nj: number of pixels with gray level rj,
L: number of discrete gray levels
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 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION

– SPECIFY THE DESIRED DENSITY FUNCTION AND OBTAIN THE

TRANSFORMATION FUNCTION G(z):

k
vk  G  z k    p z  z i   s k
i 0

pz: specified desirable PDF for output

96
 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION

• THE NEW, PROCESSED VERSION OF THE

ORIGINAL IMAGE CONSISTS OF GRAY
LEVELS CHARACTERIZED BY THE SPECIFIED
DENSITY pz(z).
1 1
In essence: z  G ( s)  z  G [T (r )]

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 MAPPINGS

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 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION

• OBTAIN THE HISTOGRAM OF THE GIVEN IMAGE

• MAP EACH LEVEL rK TO A LEVEL SK
• OBTAIN THE TRANSFORMATION FUNCTION G FROM THE
GIVEN PZ (Z)
• PRECOMPUTE ZK FOR EACH VALUE OF SK
• FOR EACH PIXEL IN THE ORIGINAL IMAGE, IF THE VALUE
OF THAT PIXEL IS rk MAP THIS VALUE TO ITS
CORRESPONDING LEVEL SK, THEN MAP LEVEL SK INTO THE
FINAL VALUE ZK

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 HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION
k nk pr(rk) sk pz(zk) vk nk
0 790 0.19 0.19 0 0 0
1 1023 0.25 0.44 0 0 0
2 850 0.21 0.65 0 0 0
3 656 0.16 0.81 0.15 0.15 790
4 329 0.08 0.89 0.2 0.35 1023
5 245 0.06 0.95 0.3 0.65 850
6 122 0.03 0.98 0.2 0.85 985
7 81 0.02 1.0 0.15 1.0 448

A 64X64 (4096 PIXELS) IMAGE WITH 8 GRAY LEVELS

100
 IMAGE ENHANCEMENT IN THE
SPATIAL DOMAIN

101
 IMAGE ENHANCEMENT IN THE
SPATIAL DOMAIN

102
103
 GLOBAL/LOCAL HISTOGRAM EQUALIZATION
• IT MAY BE NECESSARY TO ENHANCE DETAILS OVER SMALL AREAS IN THE
IMAGE
• THE NUMBER OF PIXELS IN THESE AREAS MAY HAVE NEGLIGIBLE INFLUENCE
ON THE COMPUTATION OF A GLOBAL TRANSFORMATION WHOSE SHAPE
DOES NOT NECESSARILY GUARANTEE THE DESIRED LOCAL ENHANCEMENT
• DEVISE TRANSFORMATION FUNCTIONS BASED ON THE GRAY LEVEL
DISTRIBUTION IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF EVERY PIXEL IN THE IMAGE
• THE PROCEDURE IS:
– DEFINE A SQUARE (OR RECTANGULAR) NEIGHBORHOOD AND MOVE THE
CENTER OF THIS AREA FROM PIXEL TO PIXEL.
– AT EACH LOCATION, THE HISTOGRAM OF THE POINTS IN THE
NEIGHBORHOOD IS COMPUTED AND EITHER A HISTOGRAM
EQUALIZATION OR HISTOGRAM SPECIFICATION TRANSFORMATION
FUNCTION IS OBTAINED.
– THIS FUNCTION IS FINALLY USED TO MAP THE GRAY LEVEL OF THE PIXEL
CENTERED IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD.
– THE CENTER IS THEN MOVED TO AN ADJACENT PIXEL LOCATION AND THE
PROCEDURE IS REPEATED.

104
 GLOBAL/LOCAL HISTOGRAM EQUALIZATION

105
 USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE
ENHANCEMENT (Global)
• LET r REPRESENT A GRAY LEVEL IN THE IMAGE [0, L-1], AND LET p(ri )
DENOTE THE NORMALIZED HISTOGRAM COMPONENT
CORRESPONDING TO THE ith VALUE OF r.
• THE nth MOMENT OF r ABOUT ITS MEAN IS DEFINED AS

L 1 n

 n r    ri  m  pri 
i 0
• WHERE m IS THE MEAN VALUE OF r (AVERAGE GRAY LEVEL)

m  i 0 ri pri 
L 1

106
 USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE
ENHANCEMENT (Global)
• THE SECOND MOMENT IS GIVEN BY

L 1 2

 2 r    ri  m  pri 
i 0

• WHICH IS THE VARIANCE OF r

• MEAN AS A MEASURE OF AVERAGE GRAY LEVEL IN THE IMAGE
• VARIANCE AS A MEASURE OF AVERAGE CONTRAST

107
 USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE
ENHANCEMENT (Local)
• LET (x,y) BE THE COORDINATES OF A PIXEL IN AN
IMAGE, AND LET SX,Y DENOTE A NEIGBORHOOD OF
SPECIFIED SIZE, CENTERED AT (x,y)
• THE MEAN VALUE mSXY OF THE PIXELS IN SX,Y IS

ms xy   r s ,t prs ,t 
 s ,t
 S xy
• THE GRAY LEVEL VARIANCE OF THE PIXELS IN
REGION SX,Y IS GIVEN BY

S xy
2
  r s ,t 
 msxy prs ,t 
2

 
s ,t S xy
108
 USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE
ENHANCEMENT
• THE GLOBAL MEAN AND VARIANCE ARE MEASURED
OVER AN ENTIRE IMAGE AND ARE USEFUL FOR
GROSS ADJUSTMENTS OF OVERALL INTENSITY AND
CONTRAST.
• A USE OF THESE MEASURES IN LOCAL
ENHANCEMENT IS, WHERE THE LOCAL MEAN AND
VARIANCE ARE USED AS THE BASIS FOR MAKING
CHANGES THAT DEPEND ON IMAGE
CHARACTERISTICS IN A PREDEFINED REGION ABOUT
EACH PIXEL IN THE IMAGE.

109
 TUNGSTEN FILAMENT IMAGE

110
USE OF HISTOGRAM STATISTICS FOR IMAGE ENHANCEMENT

• A PIXEL AT POINT (x,y) IS CONSIDERED IF:

– mSXY ≤ k0MG, where k0 is a positive constant less than 1.0, and MG is
global mean
– σsxy ≤ k2DG, where DG is the global standard deviation and k2 is a
positive constant
– k1DG ≤ σsxy ,, with k1 < k2
• A PIXEL THAT MEETS ALL ABOVE CONDITIONS IS
PROCESSED SIMPLY BY MULTIPLYING IT BY A SPECIFIED
CONSTANT, E, TO INCREASE OR DECREASE THE VALUE OF
ITS GRAY LEVEL RELATIVE TO THE REST OF THE IMAGE.
• THE VALUES OF PIXELS THAT DO NOT MEET THE
ENHANCEMENT CONDITIONS ARE LEFT UNCHANGED.

111
 IMAGE ENHANCEMENT IN THE
SPATIAL DOMAIN

112
 IMAGE ENHANCEMENT IN THE
SPATIAL DOMAIN

113
 Readings from Book (3rd Edn.)
• 3.1 Image Enhancement &
Transformations
• 3.2 Basic Intensity
Transformation Functions
• 3.3 Histogram
 Acknowledgements
 Statistical Pattern Recognition: A Review – A.K Jain et al., PAMI (22) 2000
 Pattern Recognition and Analysis Course – A.K. Jain, MSU
Material in these slides has been taken from, the following resources

 Pattern Classification” by Duda et al., John Wiley & Sons.

 Digital Image Processing”, Rafael C. Gonzalez & Richard E. Woods, Addison-Wesley, 2002
 Machine Vision: Automated Visual Inspection and Robot Vision”, David Vernon, Prentice Hall,
1991
 www.eu.aibo.com/
 Advances in Human Computer Interaction, Shane Pinder, InTech, Austria, October 2008

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