Visual impact enhancement via image histogram smoothing and continuous intensity relocation

  • Authors:

  • N. M. Kwok;Xiuping Jia;D. Wang;S. Y. Chen;Gu Fang;Q. P. Ha

  • Affiliations:

  • School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia;School of Engineering and Information Technology, University College, The University of New South Wales, Campbell, ACT 2600, Australia;School of Mechanical and Manufacturing Engineering, The University of New South Wales, UNSW Sydney, NSW 2052, Australia;College of Computer Science and Technology, Zhejiang University of Technology, 310023 Hangzhou, China;School of Engineering, University of Western Sydney, Penrith, NSW 2751, Australia;School of Electrical, Mechanical and Mechatronic Systems, University of Technology Sydney, Ultimo, NSW 2007, Australia

  • Venue:
  • Computers and Electrical Engineering
  • Year:
  • 2011

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Abstract

Image contrast enhancement is a fundamental pre-processing stage in applications requiring image processing operations. Among revenues of available approaches, histogram equalization is a popular and attractive candidate method to produce resultant images of increased contrast. However, images obtained from canonical histogram equalization frequently suffer from the accompanying artefacts and give rises to uncomfortable viewing particularly in homogeneous regions. In this work, the problem is tackled using the histogram matching concept where the intensity histogram of the input image is matched to its smoothed version for contrast enhancement. Furthermore, homogeneous pixel intensities are randomly perturbed in order to reduce undesirable artefacts. The resultant image intensities are thus distributed over the available range and an increased image contrast is derived. Satisfactory results are obtained from a collection of benchmark images captured under different conditions to verify the effectiveness of the proposed approach.