Transform Coefficient Histogram and Edge Preserving Image Enhancement Using Contrast Entropy

Enhancing an image in such a way that maintains image edges is a difficult problem. Many current methods for image enhancement either smooth edges on a small scale while improving contrast on a global scale or enhance edges on a large scale while amplifying noise on a small scale. Many applications of histograms for the purposes of image processing are well known. However, applying this process to the transform domain by way of a transform coefficient histogram has not yet been fully explored. This paper proposes three methods of image enhancement: a) logarithmic transform histogram matching, b) logarithmic transform histogram shifting, and c) logarithmic transform histogram shaping using Gaussian distributions. They are based on the properties of the logarithmic transform domain histogram and histogram equalization. The presented algorithms use the fact that the relationship between stimulus and perception is logarithmic and afford a marriage between enhancement qualities and computational efficiency. A human visual system based quantitative measurement of image contrast improvement is also defined. This helps choose the best parameters and transform for each enhancement. A number of experimental results are presented to illustrate the performance of the proposed algorithms