Digital Image Enhancement

Nikolas P. Galatsanos
Illinois Institute of Technology, Chicago, Illinois, U.S.A.
C. Andrew Segall
Aggelos K. Katsaggelos
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, U.S.A.
INTRODUCTION
In this entry, we provide a tutorial survey of digital image
enhancement algorithms and applications. These techni-
ques are considered throughout the image-processing li-
terature and depend significantly on the underlying appli-
cation. Thus, the survey cannot address every possible
realization or application of digital image enhancement.
To address this problem, we classify the methods based
on two properties: whether the processing performed is
point or spatial and whether it is linear or nonlinear. This
leads to a concise introduction to field of enhancement,
which does not require expertise in the area of image
processing. When specific applications are considered,
simulations are provided for assessing the performance.
OVERVIEW
The goal of digital image enhancement is to produce a
processed image that is suitable for a given application.
For example, we might require an image that is easily
inspected by a human observer or an image that can be
analyzed and interpreted by a computer. There are two
distinct strategies to achieve this goal. First, the image can
be displayed appropriately so that the conveyed informa-
tion is maximized. Hopefully, this will help a human (or
computer) extract the desired information. Second, the
image can be processed so that the informative part of the
data is retained and the rest discarded. This requires a
definition of the informative part, and it makes an en-
hancement technique application specific. Nevertheless,
these techniques often utilize a similar framework.
The objective of this entry is to present a tutorial
overview of digital enhancement problems and solution
methods in a concise manner. The desire to improve
images in order to facilitate different applications has
existed as long as image processing. Therefore, image
enhancement is one of the oldest and most mature fields
in image processing and is discussed in detail in many
excellent references; see, e.g., Refs. [13].
Image enhancement algorithms can be classified in
terms of two properties. An algorithm utilizes either point
or spatial processing, and it incorporates either linear or
nonlinear operations. In this vein, the rest of this entry is
organized as follows: In Point-Processing Image En-
hancement Algorithms, both linear and nonlinear point-
processing techniques are presented. In Image Enhance-
ment Based On Linear Space Processing, linear spatial
processing algorithms are presented. In Image Enhance-
ment Based On Nonlinear Space Processing, nonlinear
spatial processing algorithms are presented. Finally, we
present our conclusions.
POINT-PROCESSING IMAGE
ENHANCEMENT ALGORITHMS
Point-processing algorithms enhance each pixel sepa-
rately. Thus, interactions and dependencies between pixels
are ignored, and operations that utilize multiple pixels to
determine the value of a given pixel are not allowed. Be-
cause the pixel values of neighboring locations are not
taken into account, point operations are defined as func-
ions of the pixel intensity.
Point operations can be identified for images of any
dimensionality. However, in the rest of this section, we
consider the two-dimensional monochromatic image de-
fined by a discrete space coordinate system n = (n
1
,n
2
)
with n
1
= 0,1. . .N1 and n
2
= 0,1. . .M1. The image
data is contained in a NM matrix, and the discrete space
image f(n) is obtained by sampling a continuous image
f(x,y). (For more details on image sampling, see Chapter
7.1 in Ref. [2] or Chapter 1.4 in Ref. [4].) We also assume
that f(n) is quantized to K integer values [0,1. . .K1].
When 8 bits are used to represent the pixel values,
K = 256, we refer to them as gray levels.
The fundamental tool of point processing is the
histogram. It is defined as the function h(k) = n
k
, where
n
k
is the number of pixels with gray level k = 0,1. . .K1,
and it describes an image by its distribution of intensity
values. While this representation does not uniquely
388 Encyclopedia of Optical Engineering
DOI: 10.1081/E-EOE 120009510
Copyright D 2003 by Marcel Dekker, Inc. All rights reserved.
identify an image, it is quite meaningful for a variety of
applications. This is readily apparent in Fig. 1(a) and (b),
where we show an aerial image of an airport and its
corresponding histogram. From the histogram, we deduce
that the image is relatively dark and with poor contrast.
Additionally, we conclude that there are three major types
of image regions. This conclusion is derived from the two
peaks as well as the shape of the histogram in the brighter
intensities. In the image, these regions correspond to the
dark background, lighter road and building objects, and
the bright airplane features.
Basic Point Transformations
Point transformations are represented by the expression
gn T f n 1
where f(n) is the input image, g(n) is the processed image,
and T is an operator that operates only at the pixel location
n. For linear point operators, Eq. 1 becomes
gn af n b 2
Linear point transforms stretch or shrink the histogram
of an image. This is desirable when the available range of
intensity values is not utilized. For example, assume that
A min
n
f n and B max
n
f n. The linear transfor-
mation in Eq. 2 can map the gray levels A and B to gray
levels 0 and K1. Using simple algebra, the transforma-
tion is given by
gn
K 1
B A
_ _
f n A 3
The effect of stretching the histogram of an image is
shown in Fig. 2(a), where the histogram of Fig. 1(a) is
modified. The resulting histogram appears in Fig. 2(b).
As can be seen from the figure, the image in Fig. 2(a) is
both more pleasing and more informative that the image
in Fig. 1(a). This is especially noticeable on the right
half of the image frame.
Other transformations are also utilized for image en-
hancement. For example, the power-law transform des-
cribes the response of many display and printing devices.
It is given by g(n) = c( f(n))
g
, where the exponent is called
the gamma factor, and it leads to a process called gamma
correction.
[1]
(A television or computer monitor typically
has a voltage-to-intensity response that corresponds to
1.5 g 3). As a second example, the log transform
compresses the dynamic range of an image and is given as
g(n) =clog(f(n) +1). This transform is often employed to
display Fourier spectra. In Fig. 3, e.g., we show (a) an
image of the vocal folds obtained by a flexible endoscope,
(b) the magnitude of the two-dimensional discrete Fourier
transform (DFT) of the image, and (c) the log-transformed
magnitude of the Fourier transform. (For this image,
c =1.) Note that the actual magnitude in (b) provides little
information about the spectrum when compared to the
log-transformed image in (c). This image is revisited in a
later section, as it facilitates noise removal.
Fig. 1 Representing an image with its histogram: (a) original
aerial image and (b) the corresponding histogram. While the
histogram does not completely describe the image, it does
suggest that the image contains three region types.
Digital Image Enhancement 389
D
Histogram Processing
One of the standard methods for image enhancement is
histogram equalization. Histogram equalization is simi-
lar to the stretching operation in Eq. 3. However, instead
of utilizing the entire dynamic range, the goal of his-
togram equalization is to obtain a flat histogram. This is
motivated by information theory, where it is known that a
uniform probability density function (pdf ) contains the
largest amount of information.
[5]
Fig. 3 Visualizing the Fourier spectrum: (a) image of vocal
chords obtained by a flexible endoscope, (b) magnitude of Fourier
spectrum, and (c) log-transform of Fourier spectrum magnitude.
Note that inspecting the magnitude values in (b) provides little
insight into the shape of the spectrum, as compared to the visual
representation in (c).
Fig. 2 Stretching the histogram of an image: (a) aerial image
after histogram stretching and (b) the corresponding histogram.
The stretching procedure increases the contrast of the image and
makes objects easier to discern.
390 Digital Image Enhancement
The method of histogram equalization is well des-
cribed in Chapter 2 of Ref. [2], where the normalized
histogram provides the foundation of the method. This
histogram provides the probability of occurrence of gray
level k in the image f (n) and is expressed as
p
f
k n
k
=n 4
where n =NM, the total number of pixels in the image. Due
to the definition of a histogram in Eq. 4, we know that

K1
k 0
p
f
k 1 5
where the function p
f
(k) can be viewed as the pdf of f (n).
The cumulative density function (cdf) is therefore equal to
P
f
r

r
k 0
p
f
k 6
where it should be clear that
p
f
k P
f
k P
f
k 1, k 0,1 . . . K 1 7
To explain the process of histogram equalization, we
first consider the case of continuous intensity values.
In other words, we denote by p
f
(x) and P
f
(x) the con-
tinuous pdf and cdf of a continuous random variable, x,
respectively. These two functions are related by p
f
(x) =
dP
f
(x)/dx. Furthermore, P
f
1
(x) exists and P
f
(x) is non-
decreasing. Assume that the sought after transformation
is given by
g P
f
f 8
The enhanced image g has a flat histogram because the
cdf of g is given by
P
g
x Prg x PrP
f
f x
Pr f P
1
f
x
_ _
P
f
P
1
f
x
_ _
x 9
and, therefore, its pdf by
p
g
x dP
g
x=dx 1 10
To flatten the histogram of a digital image, the
following procedure is employed. First, P
f
(k) is computed
using Eq. 6. Then, Eq. 8 is applied at each pixel. This
implies that the function P
f
can be applied on a pixel-by-
pixel basis to the image f(n) according to
gn P
f
f n 11
Finally, Eq. 3 is used to stretch the histogram.
In Fig. 4(a), we show the result of histogram equa-
lization for the airport image in Fig. 1(a). In Fig. 4(b), we
show the histogram of the image in Fig. 4(a). By com-
paring the images in Figs. 2(a) and 4(a), we observe that
histogram equalization is more effective in bringing out
the salient information of the image than linear histogram
stretching. Furthermore, it is important to remember that
although the theory of histogram equalization strives for a
uniform histogram, this is not always achieved in practice.
The reason for this discrepancy is that the algorithm
assumes that the histogram is a continuous function, which
is not true for digital images.
Fig. 4 Equalizing the histogram of an image: (a) aerial image
after histogram equalization and (b) the corresponding his-
togram. Histogram equalization often assists in the analysis of
images, as it makes objects distinct. This is evident in the line
features in the top left portion of the frame.
Digital Image Enhancement 391
D
While histogram equalization attempts to maximize the
information content of an image, some applications may
require a histogram with arbitrary shape. For example, it
might be desirable to match the histograms of two images
prior to comparison. Such an objective has been studied
within the context of mapping a random variable with a
given distribution to another variable with desired dis-
tribution, and it is discussed in Refs. [1,3].
IMAGE ENHANCEMENT BASED ON
LINEAR SPACE PROCESSING
Linear filtering is the basis for linear spatial enhancement
techniques. Linear spatial filtering can also be represented
by Eq. 1. However, in this case, the value of g(n) depends
not only on the value f(n) of but also on the values of f
in the neighborhood of n. The input output relation in
Eq. 1 is therefore written as
gn
1
; n
2

1
m
1
1

1
m
2
1
f m
1
,m
2
hn
1
,n
2
;m
1
,m
2

12
where h is the function that describes the effect of the
linear system T. An interesting subcategory of linear
filtering is space-invariant linear filtering. In such a case,
the input output relation in Eq. 1 is written as
gn
1
,n
2

1
m
1
1

1
m
2
1
f m
1
,m
2
hn
1
m
1
,n
2
m
2

f n
1
,n
2

*
hn
1
,n
2
13
where the function h is called the impulse response of the
system and the operation in Eq. 13 is called convolution
and represented by *. Although the summation in Eq. 13
is over an infinite range, these limits are finite in practice
as images have finite support.
A useful property of space-invariant filtering is that the
input output relation remains constant over the entire
image. Thus, the value of the impulse response depends
only on the distance between the input and output pixels
and not on their spatial location.
Another useful property of linear space-invariant
filtering is that it can be performed both in the spatial
and in the Fourier frequency domains. The DFT of the
discrete impulse response is given by
Hk
1
,k
2

M1
n
1
0

N1
n
2
0
hn
1
,n
2

exp
_
j
_
2p
M
n
1
k
1

2p
N
n
2
k
2
__
Ffhn
1
,n
2
g
14
where the function H(k
1
,k
2
) is called the frequency res-
ponse, and k
1
= 0,1. . .M1, k
2
= 0,1. . .N1 are the
discrete frequencies. Utilizing the DFT, input output re-
lationships of linear and space-invariant systems are
expressed according to the convolution theorem in either
the spatial or frequency domains
Hk
1
,k
2
Fk
1
,k
2
Ffhn
1
,n
2

*
f n
1
,n
2
g
hn
1
,n
2
f n
1
,n
2
F
1
fHk
1
,k
2

*
Fk
1
,k
2
g
15
where the operator F
1
represents the inverse DFT.
[4]
Thus, linear space-invariant filtering is performed either
by convolving the input image with the impulse response
of the filter or by multiplying on a point-by-point basis the
Fourier transform of the image with the frequency res-
ponse of the filter. The ability to perform linear filtering in
both the spatial and the Fourier domains has a number of
advantages. First, it facilitates the design of filters because
it helps separate the part of the signal that should be re-
tained from the part that should be attenuated or discarded.
Second, it helps improve the speed of computation by
utilizing a fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithm for
computing the DFT.
We present two examples of linear enhancement. In
the first example, we show enhancement by linear fil-
tering in the spatial domain, i.e., by using convolution. In
Fig. 5(b), we show the result of convolving the image in
Fig. 5(a) by the uniform 33 mask
h
1=9 1=9 1=9
1=9 1=9 1=9
1=9 1=9 1=9
_

_
_

_ 16
The image in Fig. 5(a) has been corrupted by additive
Gaussian noise. In Fig. 5(c), we show the result of the
same approach when a 5 5 uniform mask is used.
Clearly, this type of filtering removes noise although at
the expense of blurring image features. In the second
example, image enhancement is performed in the Fourier
domain by point-by-point multiplication. The regular
noise pattern in the image in Fig. 3(a) manifests itself as a
periodic train of impulses in both directions of the Fourier
domain.
[1]
This is observed in the log-transformed spec-
trum of this image in Fig. 3(c). We selected a filter with
frequency response
Hk
1
,k
2

1 for N
1
k
1
M
1
; N
2
k
2
M
2
0 elsewhere
_
17
where the parameters M
i
, N
i
for i =1,2 are selected such
that the largest area around the central impulse in Fig. 3(c)
that does not include any of the other satellite impulses
is maintained. The magnitude of G(k
1
,k
2
) = F(k
1
,k
2
)
H(k
1
,k
2
) is shown in Fig. 6(a). In Fig. 6(b), we show
F
1
fGk
1
; k
2
g, the enhanced image.
Another very popular method for image enhancement
is the Wiener filter. This method is optimal in a mean-
392 Digital Image Enhancement
squared error sense.
[5]
When the noise is zero mean and
uncorrelated with the image, the frequency response of
the Wiener filter is defined as
Hk
1
,k
2

S
f
k
1
,k
2

S
f
k
1
,k
2
S
w
k
1
,k
2

with
k
1
0,1 . . . M1, k
2
0,1 . . . N1
18
where S
f
(k
1
,k
2
) and S
w
(k
1
,k
2
) are the power spectra of the
image and noise, respectively. The filtered image is then
given by
^
f n
1
,n
2
F
1
fHk
1
,k
2
Gk
1
,k
2
g 19
In general, the power spectra are not known and have
to be estimated from the observed data. Finding these
quantities is not a trivial problem and is investigated in
the literature (e.g., iterative Wiener filter
[6]
). In Fig. 7(a),
we show the result of Wiener filtering the noise-degraded
image in Fig. 5(a) when the power spectra are estimated
from the original images. In Fig. 7(b), we show the result
of Wiener filtering the image in Fig. 5 (a) when the power
spectra are estimated from the observed data using the
periodogram method. Noise-filtering techniques have
been studied extensively in the literature, often as a spe-
cial case of image restoration techniques, when the degra-
dation system is represented by the identity.
[7]
Fig. 5 Linear filtering for noise removal: (a) original image corrupted by additive Gaussian noise, (b) image processed with a 3 3
averaging operations, and (c) image processed with a 5 5 averaging operation. The averaging procedure reduces the high-frequency
content of the image and attenuates noise.
Digital Image Enhancement 393
D
IMAGE ENHANCEMENT BASED ON
NONLINEAR SPACE PROCESSING
Nonlinear filtering allows for the preservation of image
features and the removal of impulsive noise. Unlike linear
enhancement methods, the output of these operators is not
defined as a linear sum of the input samples. Instead,
input images are filtered with highly configurable and
adaptive procedures. Most often, the adaptation is based
on information from the unprocessed image frame. In this
case, the input output relationship is expressed as
gn
1
,n
2

1
m
1
1

1
m
2
1
f m
1
,m
2

hn
1
,n
2
;m
1
,m
2
, f , . . . 20
where additional parameters are allowable.
The number of algorithms described by Eq. 20 is
immense.
[810]
In the remainder of this section, however,
we consider three specific types of nonlinear filtering
methods. These types describe a majority of common en-
hancement algorithms, and we define them as order-sta-
tistic, transform-mapping, and edge-adaptive enhance-
ment techniques.
Order-Statistic Filtering
Order-statistic filters attenuate intensity values based on
their rank within a local processing window. To construct
this type of procedure, the following approach is fol-
lowed. First, the processing window is defined. This
requires a definition for the values of m
1
and m
2
in Eq. 20
for which h(n
1
,n
2
; m
1
,m
2
, f,. . .) is always zero. Thus, it is
analogous to the kernel of a linear filter in that it
determines the neighboring pixels that contribute to the
filtered result. Having selected the filter parameters, the
next step for an order-statistic filter is to sort all of the
pixels within the processing window according to their
intensity value. The filter then extracts the intensity value
that occupies the desired rank in the list and returns it as
the output. The spatial location of the returned value
varies across the image frame and is controlled by the
value of f(n
1
,n
2
).
While the order-statistic filter can be described using
Eq. 20, it is traditionally expressed as
gn
1
,n
2
Rank
i
f n
1
m
1
,n
2
m
2
,m
1
,m
2
2 M
21
where g(n
1
,n
1
) is the filtered result, Rank
i
is the de-
signated rank, f(n
1
,n
1
) is the original image frame, and M
is the processing window. For simplicity, we assume that
the processing window is square although this needs not
be the case. Nevertheless, note that the output of the filter
is always equal to an intensity value within the local pro-
cessing window. This is in stark difference to linear me-
thods, where the output is defined as a weighted sum of
the input intensities.
Choosing the rank of the filter is an important design
parameter, and it depends largely on the application.
One common choice is to utilize the median, or middle,
intensity value within the sorted processing window. The
resulting median filter is well suited for removing im-
pulsive noise that is additive and zero mean, and it can
be realized using one of two available methods. In the
first approach, the pixels in the processing window are
all extracted from the original image frame, as is
denoted in Eq. 21. In the second approach, a recursive
procedure is utilized and pixels in the window are ex-
tracted from the previously filtered result when avail-
able. Intensity values at the unprocessed locations are
Fig. 6 Linear filtering in the Fourier domain: (a) the central
part of the Fourier transform in Fig. 3(c) and (b) the inverse
transform of (a).
394 Digital Image Enhancement
extracted from the original image, and the procedure is
expressed as
gn
1
,n
2
Rank
i
f n
1
m
1
,n
2
m
2
,
gn
1
m
0
1
,n
2
m
0
2
,
m
1
,m
2
2 M
1
,m
0
1
,m
0
2
2 M
2
22
where M
1
are locations in the processing window that
have not been filtered, and M
2
are locations that have
been previously filtered. The advantage of the second
approach is that it provides better noise attenuation
given the same processing window. This is illustrated in
Fig. 8, where the image in (a) is corrupted by salt-and-
pepper noise. The nonrecursive and recursive median
filters then filter the noisy image, and the results are
shown in (b) and (c), respectively. Notice that while the
recursive approach provides better noise attenuation,
both are adept at removing noise.
Another choice for the rank is to utilize the maximum
(or minimum) value within the ordered list. This opera-
tor removes the spatially small and dark (or bright) ob-
jects within the image frame, and it is a fundamental
operator in the theory of mathematical morphology.
[1113]
This field is concerned with the study of local image
structure and is originally cast within the context of
Boolean functions, binary images, and set theory. When
extended to grayscale images, however, the basic dilation
and erosion operators correspond to the maximum and
minimum order-statistic filters, respectively. Moreover,
concatenating the dilation and erosion produces additio-
nal processing methods. For example, dilation followed
by erosion is called a close, while erosion followed by
dilation is called an open. (The open and close operators
can also be concatenated.)
Morphological filters have many interesting properties.
For example, the open and close operators are idempotent,
which means that an image successively filtered by an
open (or close) does not change after the first filter pass.
Additionally, the dilation and erosion operators are se-
parable. Combining these properties with the fact that
finding the minimum (or maximum) value in a list is
computationally efficient, the morphological operators are
well suited for a variety of enhancement applications in-
cluding those subject to computational constraints.
The filtering characteristics of the morphological op-
erators are illustrated in Fig. 9. The image in Fig. 8(a)
is filtered with an erosion (minimum value) and dilation
(maximum value). Results appear in (a) and (b), respec-
tively. From the figures, we see that erosion enlarges the
dark image regions and removes small bright features,
while dilation enlarges the bright image regions and re-
moves small dark features. (The processing window
establishes the definition of small.). The open and
close operators are appropriate when feature size should
be preserved. These filters are illustrated in (c) and (d),
respectively, and the open operation removes small and
dark image regions, while the close operation attenuates
small bright image regions. Finally, the openclose and
closeopen operators are shown in (e) and (f) and remove
both bright and dark small-scale features. Note, however,
that the results in (e) and (f) are not identical.
Modifications to the general order-statistic filter are
also useful. For example, when the sample values within
Fig. 7 Wiener filtering: (a) result of filtering with the actual power spectra and (b) filtering utilizing periodogram estimates. Finding
the power spectra from the noisy image is nontrivial.
Digital Image Enhancement 395
D
the processing windows are known with unequal cer-
tainty, a weighted operator can be constructed.
[14]
In this
method, a weight is assigned to each location within the
window. The weights are normalized so that the sum is
equal to the number of pixels in the processing window,
and pixel vales within the widow are sorted according to
intensity. Although unlike the traditional order-statistic
filter, the assigned rank is not equal to the number of
intensity values preceding it in the sorted list. Instead,
the assigned rank is equal to the cumulative sum of
the weights. The intensity value that is closest to (but
greater than) the desired rank is then chosen as the
filtered result.
Other modifications to the order-statistic filter combine
nonlinear and linear filters. For example, an alpha-trim
filter sorts the pixels in the processing window according
to intensity value. Instead of choosing a single value from
the sorted list, however, a number of pixels are extracted
(e.g., the middle five values) and, subsequently, processed
by a linear filter. The result is an operation that is less
sensitive to impulsive noise than a linear filter but is not
constrained to intensity values within the original image
frame. As a second example, the linear combination of
several morphological operators can be considered. With
this filtering procedure, the original image is filtered with
several morphological operators (e.g., an openclose and
Fig. 8 Median filtering: (a) image corrupted with salt and pepper noise, (b) image processed with nonrecursive median filter and 3 3
processing window, and (c) image processed with recursive median filter and 3 3 processing window. Note that the nonrecursive
method does not remove all of the noise.
396 Digital Image Enhancement
Fig. 9 Morphological filtering of salt and pepper image: (a) erode, (b) dilate, (c) open, (d) close, (e) openclose, and (f) closeopen.
The openclose and closeopen operators are able to remove much of the noise in Fig. 8(a).
Digital Image Enhancement 397
D
closeopen) and the results are then combined in a
weighted sum. As in the previous method, this exploits the
performance of the order-statistic filter while allowing
intensity values that do not appear in the original image.
Transform Mapping
A second form of the nonlinear enhancement algorithms
is the transform-mapping framework. In the approach, an
image frame is first processed with a transform operator
that separates the original image into two components.
One is semantically meaningful, while the other contains
noise. A nonlinear mapping then removes the noise, and
the enhanced image corresponds to the inverse transform
of the modified data. This is expressed as
gn
1
,n
2

1
m
1
1

1
m
2
1
xm
1
,m
2
t
1
n
1
,n
2
;m
1
,m
2
, f , . . . 23
where
xm
1
,m
2

1
m11

1
m21
f n
1
,n
2
tm
1
,m
2
;n
1
,n
2
, f , . . ., xm
1
,m
2
2S
0, xm
1
,m
2
= 2S
_

_
24
S is the set of semantically meaningful features, and t
and t
1
are the forward and inverse transforms res-
pectively. In most applications, the transform operators
are linear.
Fig. 11 Denoising with the wavelet transform: The noisy
image in Fig. 5(a) is transformed with the Haar wavelet, and
all transform coefficients smaller than a threshold are set equal
to zero.
Fig. 10 Denoising with the wavelet transform: (a) three-level transform, where t
L
(n) and t
H
(n) are the low-pass and high-pass filters,
respectively, and (b) the resulting transform coefficients. Most of the image content appears in x
4
(n), which corresponds to the upper left
of (b).
398 Digital Image Enhancement
Selecting the transform operator and separating the
noise from meaningful features are important problems
within the transform-mapping method. One common
choice is to couple the discrete wavelet transform with a
thresholding operation. The wavelet operation processes
the image with a filter bank containing low-pass and high-
pass filters.
[1517]
This is illustrated in Fig. 10, where the
filter bank and transform coefficients are shown in (a) and
(b), respectively. As can be seen from the figure, the
discrete wavelet transform compacts the image features
into a sparse set of significant components. These cor-
respond to the low-frequency transform coefficients (at the
upper left of the decomposition) as well as the significant
coefficients within the high-frequency data. Coefficients
with small amplitudes are identified as noise and removed
by hard thresholding, or setting all coefficients with mag-
nitudes less than a threshold equal to zero.
An example of the wavelet and hard threshold ap-
proach appears in Fig. 11. In the figure, the image in
Fig. 5(a) is transformed with the discrete wavelet trans-
form. (The Haar wavelet is utilized.) Small transform
coefficients are then set equal to zero, and the inverse
discrete wavelet transform is calculated. Note that in-
creasing the threshold decreases the amount of noise but
Fig. 12 Edge-adaptive smoothing: (a) estimated locations of edges in Fig. 5(a), (b) processing the image with an adaptive 3 3
averaging operation, and (c) processing the image with an adaptive 5 5 averaging operation. The filters are disabled in the vicinity
of edges.
Digital Image Enhancement 399
D
also smoothes the image data. This smoothing is a result
of removing some of the salient image features.
Alternatives to hard thresholding may improve the
image enhancement procedure. For example, the soft
threshold method attempts to preserve image content with
the rule
xm
1
,m
2

T f n
1
,n
2
b, T f n
1
,n
2
> b
T f n
1
,n
2
b, T f n
1
,n
2
< b
0; otherwise
_

_
25
where T is the forward transform, and b is the thres-
hold. Other examples include the use of spatial cor-
relations within the transform domain, recursive hy-
pothetical test, Bayesian estimation, and generalized
cross-validation.
[18]
Edge-Adaptive Approaches
Edge-adaptive methods focus on the preservation of
edges in an image frame. These edges correspond to
significant differences between pixel intensities, and
retaining these features maintains the spatial integrity
objects within the scene. The general structure of the
approach is to limit smoothing in the vicinity of potential
edge features. For example, one can disable smoothing
with an edge map. This is illustrated in Fig. 12, where (a)
are the location of edges estimated from the Fig. 5(a), (b)
is the result of filtering with a 3 3 averaging operation
at locations that do not contain an edge, and (c) is the
result of adapting a 55 averaging operation with the
same procedure.
A second approach to edge-adaptive smoothing is
realized as
hn
1
,n
2
;m
1
,m
2
, f , . . .

1
Z
exp
n
1
m
1

2
n
2
m
2

2
_
1 g^ s
2
f
n
1
,n
2

1
s
2
_ _
26
where Z is a normalizing constant, s
2
is the variance of
the filter, s
f
2
(n
1
,n
2
) is an estimate of the local variance at
f(n
1
,n
2
), and g is a tuning parameter. In this procedure,
the variance estimate in Eq. 26 responds to the presence
of edges, and it reduces the amount of smoothing to
preserve the edge features. This is evident in Fig. 13,
where the combination of Eqs. 20 and 26 processes the
noisy frame in Fig. 5(a). Results shown in (a) and (b)
correspond to tuning parameters of 0 and 0.001, respec-
tively. (In the example, s
2
=4.) This illustrates the impact
of adaptivity. When the parameter is zero, the filter does
not respond to the edge features and results in linear
enhancement. When the parameter is 0.001, the filter
preserves edges.
A final example of the edge-adaptive approach is the
anisotropic diffusion operator. This operator attempts to
identify edges and smooth the image simultaneous-
ly.
[19,20]
It is realized numerically with the iteration
g
tDt
n
1
,n
2
g
t
n
1
,n
2

Dt

i fN,S,E,Wg
c
i,t
n
1
,n
2
r
i
g
t
n
1
,n
2

27
Fig. 13 Edge preservation with an adaptive Gaussian kernel: (a) image processed with linear Gaussian operator and (b) image
processed with adaptive procedure defined in Eq. 26. Local variance estimates control the filter and preserve edges.
400 Digital Image Enhancement
where c
i,s
(n
1
,n
2
) is the diffusion coefficient of the ith
direction at location (n
1
,n
2
), r
i
is the derivative of
g
s
(n
1
,n
2
) in the ith direction, Dt < 0.25 for stability, and
g
0
(n
1
,n
2
) =f(n
1
,n
2
). The directional derivatives are de-
fined as the simple difference between the current pi-
xel and its neighbors in the North, South, East, and
West directions.
Construction of the diffusion coefficient determines
the performance of the algorithm. When the coefficient is
constant (i.e., spatially invariant), then the diffusion
operation is isotropic and is equivalent to filtering the
original image with a Gaussian kernel. When the coef-
ficient varies relative to local edge estimates, however,
object boundaries are maintained. For example, a dif-
fusion coefficient defined as
c
i,s
n
1
,n
2
exp
r
i
g
s
n
1
,n
2

k
_ _
2
_ _
28
where k is the diffusion coefficient; the amount of
smoothing is limited when r
i
g
s
(n
1
,n
2
) becomes much
larger than k.
[19]
Alternatively, the coefficient
c
i,s
n
1
,n
2
exp
r
i
Gn
1
,n
2
*
g
s
n
1
,n
2

k
_ _
2
_ _
29
utilizes a filtered representation of the current image to
estimate edges, where G(n
1
,n
2
) is a Gaussian operator
and * denotes two-dimensional convolution. Other co-
efficients are discussed in Ref. [21].
An example of diffusion is shown in Fig. 14. In the
figure, the image in Fig. 5(a) is processed with 27. The
diffusion coefficient in Eq. 28 is utilized, k is defined as
the standard deviation of r
i
g
0
(n
1
,n
2
), and Dt = 0.24.
Results produced by the diffusion operator after 5 and
25 iterations appear in (a) and (b), respectively. As can be
seen from the figures, additional iterations increase the
amount of smoothing. Nevertheless, the diffusion method
smoothes the noisy image while preserving edges.
CONCLUSION
In this entry, a tutorial survey of image enhancement
methods was presented. This is a very extensive topic;
therefore, only certain approaches are presented at a
rather high level. The list of provided references, con-
sisting mainly of general purpose books, provides more
details and also directs the interested reader to additional
approaches not covered here. In this entry, we only
address grayscale image. Color images play an important
role in most applications. On one hand, most of the ap-
proaches presented here can be extended to enhance color
images by processing separately each of the planes used
for the representation of the color image (e.g., RGB,
CMY, or YIQ). On the other hand, the correlation among
color planes can be used to develop additional enhance-
ment techniques. Furthermore, mapping a grayscale image
Fig. 14 Smoothing with anisotropic diffusion: (a) image produced after 5 iterations of Eq. 27 and (b) image produced after 25
iterations of Eq. 27. Both experiments utilize the diffusion coefficient in Eq. 28 and illustrate the edge preserving properties of the
diffusion operation.
Digital Image Enhancement 401
D
to a color (or pseudo-color) image can be utilized as an
enhancement technique by itself, e.g., in visualizing image
data. The interested reader can find out more about color
image processing in a number of books appearing in the
references, and more specifically in Refs. [22,23].
REFERENCES
1. Gonzalez, R.C.; Woods, R.E. Digital Image Processing;
Addison-Wesley, 2002; 3.
2. Handbook of Image and Video Processing; Bovik, A.C.,
Ed.; Academic Press: San Diego, 2000; 1.
3. Pratt, W. Digital Image Processing; John Wiley and Sons,
2001; 3.
4. Dungeon, D.; Mersereau, R. Multidimensional Digital
Signal Processing; Prentice Hall, 1984; 1.
5. Jain, A. Fundamentals of Digital Image Processing; Pren-
tice Hall, 1988; 1.
6. Digital Image Restoration; Katsaggelos, A., Ed.; Springer
Series in Information Sciences, Springer Verlag, 1991; 1.
7. Banham, M.R.; Katsaggelos, A.K. Digital image restora-
tion. IEEE Signal Process. Mag. 1997, 14 (2), 2441.
8. Kuosmanen, P.; Astola, J.T. Fundamentals of Nonlinear
Digital Filtering; CRC Press, 1997; 1.
9. An Introduction to Nonlinear Image Processing; Dough-
erty, E.R., Astola, J.T., Eds.; Tutorial Texts in Optical
Engineering, SPIE Press, 1994; 1.
10. Pitas, I.; Venetsanopoulos, A. Nonlinear Digital Filters:
Principles and Applications; Kluwer International Series in
Engineering and Computer Science, Kluwer Academic
Publishers, 1990; 1.
11. Serra, J. Image Analysis and Mathematical Morphology;
Academic Press, 1982; 1.
12. Serra, J. Image Analysis and Mathematical Morphology,
Vol. 2: Theoretical Advances; Academic Press, 1988; 1.
13. Soille, P. Morphological Image Analysis: Principles and
Applications; Springer Verlag, 1999; 1.
14. Arce, G.R.; Paredes, J.L.; Mullen, J. Nonlinear Filtering
for Image Analysis and Enhancement. In Handbook of
Image and Video Processing; Bovik, A.C., Ed.; Academic:
San Diego, 2000; 81100.
15. Kaiser, G. A Friendly Guide to Wavelets; Springer Verlag,
1997; 1.
16. Mallat, S. A Wavelet Tour of Signal Processing; Academic
Press, 1999; 2.
17. Prasad, L.; Iyengar, S.S.; Ayengar, S.S. Wavelet Analysis
with Applications to Image Processing; CRCPress, 1997; 1.
18. Wei, D.; Bovik, A.C. Wavelet Denoising for Image En-
hancement. In Handbook of Image and Video Processing;
Bovik, A.C., Ed.; Academic: San Diego, 2000; 117123.
19. Perona, P.; Malik, J. Scale-space and edge detection using
anisotropic diffusion. IEEE Trans. Pattern Anal. Mach.
Intell. 1990, 12 (7), 629639.
20. Geometry Driven Diffusion in Computer Vision. Computa-
tional Imaging and Vision; ter Haar Romeny, B.M., Ed.;
Kluwer Academic Publishers, 1994; 1.
21. Acton, S. Diffusion-Based Edge Detectors. In Handbook of
Image and Video Processing; Bovik, A.C., Ed.; Academic:
San Diego, 2000; 433447.
22. Sharma, G.; Trussell, H.J. Digital color imaging. IEEE
Trans. Image Process. 1997, 6 (7), 901932.
23. Plataniotis, K.N.; Lacroix, A.; Venetsanopoulos, A. Color
Image Processing and Applications; Springer Verlag,
2000; 1.
402 Digital Image Enhancement