Image Enhancement in Spatial

Domain
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Digital image representation
Monochrome image (or simply image) refers to a
2- dimensional light intensity function f(x,y)
– x and y denote spatial coordinates
– the value of f(x,y) at (x,y) is proportional to the brightness
(or gray level) of the image at that point
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Digital image representation
A digital image is an image f(x,y) that has been
discretized both in spatial coordinates and in
brightness
• Considered as a matrix whose row and column
indices represent a point in the image
• The corresponding matrix element value
represents the gray level at that point
• The elements of such an array are referred to as:
– image elements
– picture elements (pixels or pels)
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Steps in image processing
The problem domain in this example consists of pieces of mail
and the objective is to read the address on each piece
Step 1: image acquisition
– Acquire a digital image using an image sensor
• a monochrome or color TV camera: produces an entire image of the
problem domain every 1/30 second
• a line-scan camera: produces a single image line at a time, motion past the
camera produces a 2-dimensional image
– If not digital, an analog-to-digital conversion process is required
– The nature of the image sensor (and the produced image) are
determined by the application
• Mail reading applications rely greatly on line-scan cameras
• CCD and CMOS imaging sensors are very common in many applications
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Steps in image processing
• Step 2: preprocessing
– Key function: improve the image in ways that increase the
chance for success of the other processes
– In the mail example, may deal with contrast enhancement,
removing noise, and isolating regions whose texture indicates a
likelihood of alphanumeric information
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Neighborhood-oriented
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operations
• Arithmetic and logical operations may take place on a
subset of the image
– Typically neighborhood oriented
• Formulated in the context of mask operations (also
called template, window or filter operations)
• Basic concept:let the value of a pixel be a function of its
(current) gray level and the gray level of its neighbors (in
some sense)
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Neighborhood-oriented
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operations
• Consider the following subset of pixels in an image
• Suppose we want to filter the image by replacing the value at
Z5 with the average value of the pixels in a 3x3 region centered
around Z5
• Perform an operation of the form:

• and assign to z5 the value of z

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Neighborhood-oriented
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operations
• In the more general form, the operation may look like:

• This equation is widely used in image processing

• Proper selection of coefficients (weights) allows for operations
such as
– noise reduction
– region thinning
– edge detection
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What Is Image Enhancement?
Image enhancement is the process of
making images more useful
The reasons for doing this include:
– Highlighting interesting detail in images
– Removing noise from images
– Making images more visually appealing
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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Image Enhancement Examples
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Image Enhancement Examples (cont…)
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Image Enhancement Examples (cont…)
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Image Enhancement Examples (cont…)
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Spatial & Frequency Domains
There are two broad categories of image
enhancement techniques
– Spatial domain techniques
• Direct manipulation of image pixels
– Frequency domain techniques
• Manipulation of Fourier transform or wavelet
transform of an image
For the moment we will concentrate on
techniques that operate in the spatial
domain
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Basic Spatial Domain Image
92 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)
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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
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Point Processing Example:
92 Negative Images
Negative images are useful for enhancing
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

white 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
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Point Processing Example:
92 Negative Images (cont…)
Original Image Enhanced Image x
x

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

s = intensitymax - r
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Point Processing Example:
92 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
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Point Processing Example:
92 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
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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Intensity Transformations
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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
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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
Compresses the dynamic range of images
with large variations in pixel values
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Logarithmic Transformations (cont…)

Log functions are particularly useful when

Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

the input grey level values may have an

extremely large range of values
In the following example the Fourier
transform of an image is put through a log
transform to reveal more detail

s = log(1 + r)
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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]
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Power Law Transformations
Power law transformations have the following
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

form
s=c*rγ
Map a narrow range
of dark input values
into a wider range of
output values or vice
versa
Varying  gives a whole
family of curves
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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]
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Power Law Example
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Power Law Example (cont…)

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 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
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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
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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 0.4
spine
Different curves
highlight different
detail
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Power Law Example
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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
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Power Law Transformations (cont…)
An aerial photo
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

of a runway is
shown s = r 3.0

This time
power law

s = r 4.0
transforms are
used to darken
the image
Different curves
highlight
different detail
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Gamma Correction
Many devices used for image capture, display and printing
respond according to a power law
• The exponent in the power-law equation is referred to as
gamma
• The process of correcting for the power-law response is
referred to as gamma correction
• Example: – CRT devices have an intensity-to-voltage
response that is
a power function (exponents typically range from 1.8-2.5)
– Gamma correction in this case could be achieved by
applying the transformation s=r1/2.5=r^0.4
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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
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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More Contrast Issues
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Piecewise Linear Transformation
92 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
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Piecewise Linear Transformation
92 Functions
• Rather than using a well defined mathematical function we can use
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

arbitrary user-defined transforms

• Contrast stretching expands the range of intensity levels in an image so it
spans a given (full) intensity range
• Control points (r1,s1) and (r2,s2) control the shape of the transform T(r)
• r1=r2, s1=0 and s2=L-1 yields a thresholding function
The contrast stretched image shown in the previous slide is obtained using
the transformation obtained from the equation of the line having following
points
• (r1,s1)=(rmin,0) and (r2, s2)=(rmax,L-1)
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Gray Level Slicing
• Used to highlight a specific range of intensities in an
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

image that might be of interest

•Two common approaches
– Set all pixel values within a range of interest to one
value (white) and all others to another value (black)
Produces a binary image
– Brighten (or darken) pixel values in a range of interest
and leave all others unchanged
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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
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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
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

[10000000] [01000000]

[00100000] [00001000]

[00000100] [00000001]
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

[10000000] [01000000]

[00100000] [00001000]

[00000100] [00000001]
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
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Bit Plane Slicing (cont…)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Reconstructed image
using only bit planes 8 and
7

Reconstructed image
using only bit planes 8, 7
and 6

Reconstructed image
using only bit planes 7, 6
and 5