DigitalImageProcessing(CS/ECE545)

Lecture2:HistogramsandPoint
Operations(Part1)

ProfEmmanuelAgu
ComputerScienceDept.
WorcesterPolytechnicInstitute(WPI)
Histograms
Histogramsplotshowmanytimes(frequency)each
intensityvalueinimageoccurs
Example:
Image(left)has256distinctgraylevels(8bits)
Histogram(right)showsfrequency(howmanytimes)each
grayleveloccurs
Histograms
Manycamerasdisplayrealtimehistogramsofscene
Helpsavoidtakingoverexposedpictures
Alsoeasiertodetecttypesofprocessingpreviously
appliedtoimage
Histograms

Intensity
values

E.g.K =16,10pixelshaveintensityvalue=2
Histograms:onlystatisticalinformation
Noindicationoflocationofpixels
Histograms
Differentimagescanhavesamehistogram
3imagesbelowhavesamehistogram

Halfofpixelsaregray,halfarewhite
Samehistogram=samestatisics
Distributionofintensitiescouldbedifferent
Canwereconstructimagefromhistogram?No!
 Histograms

So,ahistogramforagrayscaleimagewithintensity
valuesinrange

wouldcontainexactlyK entries
E.g.8bitgrayscaleimage,K= 28 =256

Eachhistogramentryisdefinedas:
h(i)=numberofpixelswithintensityIforall0<i <K.
E.g:h(255)=numberofpixelswithintensity=255
Formaldefinition
Number (size of set) of pixels such that
InterpretingHistograms
Logscalemakeslowvaluesmorevisible
Difference between darkest and lightest
Histograms
Histogramshelpdetectimageacquisitionissues
Problemswithimagecanbeidentifiedonhistogram
Overandunderexposure
Brightness
Contrast
DynamicRange
Pointoperationscanbeusedtoalterhistogram.E.g
Addition
Multiplication
ExpandLog
IntensityWindowing(ContrastModification)
ImageBrightness
Brightnessofagrayscaleimageistheaverage
intensity ofallpixelsinimage

2. Divide by total number of pixels

1. Sum up all pixel intensities
DetectingBadExposureusingHistograms
Exposure? Are intensity values spread (good) out or
bunched up (bad)

Image

Histogram

Underexposed Properly Overexposed

Exposed
ImageContrast
Thecontrastofagrayscaleimageindicateshoweasily
objectsintheimagecanbedistinguished
Highcontrastimage: manydistinctintensityvalues
Lowcontrast: imageusesfewintensityvalues
 HistogramsandContrast
Good Contrast? Widely spread intensity values
+ large difference between min and max intensity values

Image

Histogram

Low contrast Normal contrast High contrast

ContrastEquation?
Manydifferentequationsforcontrastexist
Examples:

Michalsonsequationforcontrast
ContrastEquation?
Theseequationsworkwellforsimpleimageswith2
luminances(i.e.uniformforegroundand
background)
Doesnotworkwellforcomplexsceneswithmany
luminancesorifminandmaxintensitiesaresmall
 HistogramsandDynamicRange
DynamicRange:Numberofdistinctpixelsinimage

High Dynamic Range Low Dynamic Range Extremely low

(64 intensities) Dynamic Range
(6 intensity values)

Difficulttoincreaseimagedynamicrange(e.g.interpolation)
HDR(1214bits)capturetypical,thendownsample
HighDynamicRangeImaging
Highdynamicrangemeansverybrightandverydark
partsinasingleimage(manydistinctvalues)
Dynamicrangeinphotographedscenemayexceed
numberofavailablebitstorepresentpixels
Solution:
Capturemultipleimagesatdifferentexposures
Combinethemusingimageprocessing
DetectingImageDefectsusingHistograms
Nobesthistogramshape,dependsonapplication
Imagedefects
Saturation:sceneilluminationvaluesoutsidethesensorsrangeare
settoitsminormaxvalues=>resultsinspikeatendsofhistogram
SpikesandGapsinmanipulatedimages(notoriginal).Why?
 ImageDefects:EffectofImageCompression
Histogramsshowimpactofimagecompression
Example:inGIFcompression,dynamicrangeisreduced
toonlyfewintensities(quantization)

Original
Histogram

Original Histogram after GIF conversion

Image

Fix? Scaling image by 50% and

Interpolating values recreates
some lost colors
But GIF artifacts still visible
EffectofImageCompression
Example:EffectofJPEGcompressiononlinegraphics
JPEGcompressiondesignedforcolorimages

Original histogram
has only 2 intensities
(gray and white)

JPEG image appears

dirty, fuzzy and blurred

Its Histogram contains

gray values not in original
ComputingHistograms

Receives 8-bit image,

Will not change it

Create array to store

histogram computed

Get width and height of

image

Iterate through image

pixels, add each
intensity to appropriate
histogram bin
ImageJHistogramFunction
ImageJhasahistogramfunction(getHistogram( ) )
Priorprogramcanbesimplifiedifweuseit

Returns histogram as an
array of integers
 LargeHistograms:Binning
Highresolutionimagecanyieldverylargehistogram
Example:32bitimage=232 =4,294,967,296columns
Suchalargehistogramimpracticaltodisplay
Solution?Binning!
Combinerangesofintensityvaluesintohistogramcolumns

Number (size of set) of pixels Pixels intensity is

such that
between ai and ai+1
 CalculatingBinSize
Typicallyuseequalsizedbins
Binsize?

Example:Tocreate256binsfrom14bitimage
 BinnedHistogram

Create array to store

histogram computed

Calculate which bin to

add pixels intensity

Increment corresponding
histogram
 ColorImageHistograms

Twotypes:
1. Intensityhistogram:

Convertcolor
imagetograyscale
Displayhistogram
ofgrayscale
2. IndividualColor
ChannelHistograms:
3histograms(R,G,B)
ColorImageHistograms

Bothtypesofhistogramsprovideusefulinformationabout
lighting,contrast,dynamicrangeandsaturationeffects
Noinformationabouttheactualcolordistribution!
ImageswithtotallydifferentRGBcolorscanhavesameR,G
andBhistograms
SolutiontothisambiguityistheCombinedColorHistogram.
Moreonthislater
 CumulativeHistogram
Usefulforcertainoperations(e.g.histogramequalization)later
AnalogoustotheCumulativeDensityFunction(CDF)
Definition:

Recursivedefinition

Monotonicallyincreasing

Last entry of Total number of

Cum. histogram pixels in image
 PointOperations
Pointoperationschangesapixelsintensityvalueaccording
tosomefunction(dontcareaboutpixelsneighbor)

Alsocalledahomogeneousoperation
Newpixelintensitydependson
PixelspreviousintensityI(u,v)
Mappingfunctionf()
Doesnotdependon
Pixelslocation(u,v)
Intensitiesofneighboringpixels
SomeHomogeneousPointOperations
Addition(Changesbrightness)

Multiplication(Stretches/shrinksimagecontrastrange)

Realvaluedfunctions

Quantizingpixelvalues
Globalthresholding
Gammacorrection
PointOperationPseudocode
Input:ImagewithpixelintensitiesI(u,v)definedon
[1..w]x[1..H]
Output:ImagewithpixelintensitiesI(u,v)

forv=1..h
foru=1..w
setI(u, v)=f(I(u,v))
NonHomogeneousPointOperation
Newpixelvaluedependson:
Oldvalue+pixelslocation(u,v)
Clamping
Dealswithpixelvaluesoutsidedisplayablerange
If(a>255)a=255;
If(a<0)a=0;
Functionbelowwillclamp(force)allvaluestofall
withinrange[a,b]
Example:ModifyIntensityandClamp
Pointoperation:increaseimagecontrastby50%
thenclampvaluesabove255

Increase contrast
by 50%
 InvertingImages

2steps
1. Multipleintensityby1
2. Addconstant(e.g.amax)
toputresultinrange
[0,amax]
Implementedas
ImageJ method
invert( )
Original Inverted Image
 ImageNegatives(InvertedImages)
Imagenegativesusefulforenhancingwhiteor
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

greydetailembeddedindarkregionsofanimage
Notehowmuchclearerthetissueisinthenegative
imageofthemammogrambelow

Original Negative
s = 1.0 - r
Image Image
Thresholding

Implemented as imageJ method threshold( )

ThresholdingExample
ThresholdingandHistograms
Examplewithath = 128

Thresholdingsplitshistogram,mergeshalvesintoa0 a1
 BasicGreyLevelTransformations
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

3mostcommongrayleveltransformation:
Linear
Negative/Identity
Logarithmic
Log/Inverselog
Powerlaw
nth power/nth root
 LogarithmicTransformations
Mapsnarrowrangeofinputlevels=>widerrangeof
outputvalues
Inverselogtransformationdoesoppositetransformation

Thegeneralformofthelogtransformationis
New pixel value s = c * log(1 + r) Old pixel value

LogtransformationofFouriertransformshowsmoredetail

s = log(1 + r)
 PowerLawTransformations
Powerlawtransformationshavetheform
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

Power
s=c*r

Old pixel value

New pixel value
Constant

Mapnarrowrangeof
darkinputvaluesinto
widerrangeofoutput
valuesorviceversa
Varying givesawhole
familyofcurves
 PowerLawExample
Original
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

MagneticResonance
(MR)imageoffractured s = r 0.6

humanspine

s = r 0.4
Differentpowervalues
highlightdifferent
details
IntensityWindowing
Aclampoperation,thenlinearlystretchingimage
intensitiestofillpossiblerange
Towindowanimagein[a,b]withmaxintensityM
IntensityWindowingExample

Contrasts
easier to see
PointOperationsandHistograms
Effectofsomepointoperationseasiertoobserveonhistograms
Increasingbrightness
Raisingcontrast
Invertingimage
Pointoperationsonlyshift,mergehistogramentries
Operationsthatmergehistogrambinsareirreversible

Combining histogram
operation easier to
observe on histogram
 AutomaticContrastAdjustment

Original intensity range

If amin = 0 and amax = 255

New intensity range

EffectsofAutomaticContrastAdjustment

Linearly stretching
range causes gaps
in histogram

Original Result of automatic

Contrast Adjustment
ModifiedContrastAdjustment

 HistogramEqualization
Adjust2differentimagestomaketheirhistograms
(intensitydistributions)similar
Applyapointoperationthatchangeshistogramof
modifiedimageintouniformdistribution

Histogram

Cumulative
Histogram
 HistogramEqualization
Spreadingoutthefrequenciesinanimage(or
equalizingtheimage)isasimplewaytoimprovedark
orwashedoutimages
Canbeexpressedasatransformationofhistogram
rk: inputintensity
sk: processedintensity
k: theintensityrange
(e.g0.0 1.0)

processed intensity sk T (rk ) input intensity

Intensity range
(e.g 0 255)
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

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

Differentequalizationfunction(14)maybeused
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

EqualizationExamples
1
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

EqualizationExamples
2
Images taken from Gonzalez & Woods, Digital Image Processing (2002)

EqualizationExamples

4
3
 References
WilhelmBurgerandMarkJ.Burge,DigitalImage
Processing,Springer,2008
Histograms(Ch 4)
Pointoperations(Ch 5)
UniversityofUtah,CS4640:ImageProcessingBasics,
Spring2012
RutgersUniversity,CS334,IntroductiontoImaging
andMultimedia,Fall2012
GonzalesandWoods,DigitalImageProcessing(3rd
edition),PrenticeHall