Digital Image Processing CPE3643

Lecture 7:

Local enhancement techniques

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In the last lecture

▪ Histogram Equalization

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 Local histogram processing
The histogram processing methods mentioned up to now
are global transformation where:
▪ Function is designed according to the gray-level
distribution over an entire image
▪ Global transformation methods may not be suitable for
enhancing details over small areas (where number of
pixels may have negligible influence on designing the
global transformation function)

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Local histogram processing

Implementation steps
1: Define a square or rectangular neighborhood (block), compute the
histogram in the local block
2: Generate the transformation function by histogram equalization or
specification and perform the gray level mapping for each pixel
3: Move the center of the block to an adjacent pixel location and
repeat the procedure
Note
▪ Histogram can be updated each time without re-computing the
histogram over all pixels in the new block
▪ If utilizing non-overlapping region shift, the processed image
usually has an undesirable checkerboard effect

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 Local histogram equalization example

Result of Global Result of local

Original Image Histogram Histogram
Equalization Equalization

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Local histogram equalization example

Original Image Result of local Histogram

Equalization using 9x9
window

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 Local enhancement using statistical parameters
from histogram

Local enhancement can be based on statistical properties of

the gray levels in a block instead of using full histogram

Examples:
▪ Mean gives the average brightness of the image
▪ Variance (σ2) and its square root the standard deviation
gives the deviation of intensities on average from the
mean value (average contrast)

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Local enhancement using statistical parameters

Sxy : a neighborhood (subimage) of size NSxy; a block centered
at (x,y)
1
mS xy : gray-level mean in Sxy mS xy =  f ( s, t )
N S xy ( s ,t )S xy

 S2 : gray-level variance in Sxy  S2 = 1  ( f ( s, t ) − m )

2
xy S xy
xy
N S xy ( s ,t )S xy

 S : standard deviation, square root of variance  S2

xy
xy

MG : global mean of f(x,y)

DG : global standard deviation of f(x,y)

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 Local enhancement using statistical parameters
The statistical parameters can be used in various ways:
▪ For the direct calculation of transformation function
(adaptive transformation function) for example
g ( x, y ) = AS xy [ f ( x, y ) − mS xy ] + mS xy ,

where AS is the local gain factor, AS = kM G , 0  k  1

S
xy xy
xy

▪ Using them in defining ranges for different transfer

functions for example

 E . f ( x, y ) if mS xy  k0 M G AND k1 DG   S xy  k2 DG 

g ( x, y ) =  

 f ( x, y ) otherwise 

where E, k0, k1, k2, are specified parameters
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Local enhancement with adaptive transformation function

Original moon image Image enhanced using Histogram equalized

adaptive transformation, image
window size: 15x15, k = 0.5

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 Local enhancement using statistical parameters
Defining ranges for different transformation functions

 E . f ( x, y ) if mS xy  k0 M G AND k1 DG   S xy  k 2 DG 

g ( x, y ) =  

 f ( x, y ) otherwise 


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Local enhancement using statistical parameters

Image formed from the Image formed from the Image formed from the
local means local standard deviations multiplication constants
selected for different
mean/std ranges
E = 4.0, k0 = 0.4, k1 = 0.02, and k2 = 0.4,
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 Local enhancement using statistical parameters

Input microscopic image Enhanced output image

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