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
g (x, y) = T[ f (x, y)] Origin x
where f (x, y) is the
input image, g (x, y) is
the processed image
and T is some (x, y)
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 or
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
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 useful
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
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
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
Intensity Transformations
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
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
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)
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 form
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
s=c*rγ
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 (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=
spine r
s = r 0.4
0 .3
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
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
of a runway is
shown s = r 3.0
This time
power law
transforms are
s = r 4.0
s=
used to darken r 5 .0
the image
Different curves
highlight
different detail
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 values
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)
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
