Digital Image Processing

Image Enhancement
(Point Processing)
 Contents
•In this lecture we will look at image
enhancement point processing techniques:
– What is point processing?
– Negative images
– Thresholding
– Logarithmic transformation
– Power law transforms
– Grey level slicing
– Bit plane slicing
Basic Spatial Domain Image Enhancement
•Most spatial domain enhancement operations
can be reduced to the form
Origin x
•g (x, y) = T[ f (x, y)]
•where f (x, y) is the
input image, g (x, y) is
the processed image (x, y)
and T is some
operator defined over
some neighbourhood
of (x, y) y Image f (x, y)
 Point Processing
•The simplest spatial domain operations occur
when the neighbourhood is simply the pixel itself
•In this case T is referred to as a grey level
transformation function or a point processing
operation
•Point processing operations take the form
•s = T ( r )
•where s refers to the processed image pixel value
and r refers to the original image pixel value
 Point Processing Example:
Negative Images
•Negative images are useful for enhancing white
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

or grey detail embedded in dark regions of an

image
– Note how much clearer the tissue is in the
negative image of the mammogram below

Original Negative
s = 1.0 - r
Image Image
 Point Processing Example:
Negative Images (cont…)
Original Image Enhanced Image x
x

y Image f (x, y) y Image f (x, y)

s = intensitymax - r
 Point Processing Example:
Thresholding
•Thresholding transformations are particularly
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

useful for segmentation in which we want to

isolate an object of interest from a background

1.0 r > threshold

s=
0.0 r <= threshold
 Point Processing Example:
Thresholding (cont…)
Original Image Enhanced Image x
x

y Image f (x, y) y Image f (x, y)

1.0 r > threshold

s=
0.0 r <= threshold
 Intensity Transformations
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Intensity transformation (a) Contrast stretching (b) Thresholding function

 Basic Grey Level Transformations
•There are many different kinds of grey level
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

transformations
•Three of the most
common are shown
here
– Linear
• Negative/Identity
– Logarithmic
• Log/Inverse log
– Power law
• nth power/nth root
 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
 Logarithmic Transformations (cont…)
•Log functions are particularly useful when the input grey
level values may have an extremely large range of values..
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

•In the following example the Fourier transform of an

image is put through a log transform to reveal more detail.
•The range is from 0 to 10^6. C=1.
•The range of values becomes 0 to 6.2, which is more
manageable

s = log(1 + r)

C=1
 Logarithmic Transformations (cont…)
Original Image Enhanced Image x
x

y Image f (x, y) y Image f (x, y)

s = log(1 + r)
We usually set c to 1
Grey levels must be in the range [0.0, 1.0]
 Power Law Transformations
•Power law transformations have the following
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

form
• s=c*rγ
•Fractional value of γ 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
 Power Law Transformations
The exponent in the power law equation is referred to as gamma
The process used to correct these power law response phenomena is
called gamma correction
CRT devices have intensity to voltage response.. γ varies from 1.8
to 2.5.
Same procedure applied in scanner and printers…the value of γ is
device dependent.
 Power Law Transformations (cont…)
Original Image Enhanced Image x
x

y Image f (x, y) y Image f (x, y)

s=rγ
•We usually set c to 1
•Grey levels must be in the range [0.0, 1.0]
Power Law Example
 Power Law Example (cont…)
γ = 0.6
1
0.9
0.8
Transformed Intensities

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
 Power Law Example (cont…)
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
 Power Law Example (cont…)
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
 Power Law Example (cont…)
•The images to the
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

right show a s = r 0.6

magnetic resonance
(MR) image of a
fractured human s=
r

s = r 0.4
0 .3
spine
•Different curves
highlight different
detail
Power Law Example
 Power Law Example (cont…)
γ = 5.0
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
 Power Law Transformations (cont…)
•An aerial photo
of a runway is
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

shown
•This time
power law s = r 3.0
transforms are
used to darken
the image
•Different curves
s = r 4.0
s=
r
highlight 5 .0

different detail
•Suitable results
Were obtained with
Gamma 3.0 and 4.0,
For gamma 5.0 some
details were lost.
 Gamma Correction
•Many of you might be familiar with gamma
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

correction of computer monitors

•Problem is that
display devices do
not respond linearly
to different
intensities
•Can be corrected
using a log
transform
 Piecewise Linear Transformation Functions
•Rather than using a well defined mathematical
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

function we can use arbitrary user-defined

transforms
•The images below show a contrast stretching
linear transform to add contrast to a poor quality
image
 Gray Level Slicing
•Highlights a specific range of grey levels
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

– Similar to thresholding
– Other levels can be
suppressed or maintained
– Useful for highlighting features
in an image
 Bit Plane Slicing
•Often by isolating particular bits of the pixel
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

values in an image we can highlight interesting

aspects of that image
– Higher-order bits usually contain most of the
significant visual information
– Lower-order bits contain
subtle details
 Summary
•We have looked at different kinds of point
processing image enhancement
•Next time we will start to look at
neighbourhood operations – in particular
filtering and convolution