An Adaptive Image Enhancement Technique

Based on Image Characteristic

Xiaodong Xie, Zaifeng Shi, Wei Guo, Suying Yao
School of Electronic and Information Engeering, Tianjin University, 300072

Abstract—A novel adaptive image enhancement technique based image. The method in the third category is transform domain
on image characteristic is proposed in this paper. At first, the enhancement, maps the image intensity value into a given
spatial high-pass filter (the Laplace filter) is applied to the transform domain by using transforms such as the 2-D discrete
original image data. Then, the first-order classifying of the image cosine transform, Fourier transform, and Wavelet transform[11].
is employed on the basis of the specification of the output of the
Laplace filter. The low-pass filter is applied to smooth the image In response to above drawbacks to traditional image
for the high threshold image and the high-pass filter is applied to enhancement method, this paper presents a novel adaptive
sharpen the edge of the image for the low threshold image. After image enhancement technique based on image characteristic
that, the second-order classifying is used to adjust the brightness and proposes the efficient hardware architecture. This
of the image based on the histogram of the output of the technique is implemented on FPGA of Xilinx Virtex4, and the
first-order classifying. At last, the histogram equalization is experimental results have a good effect on image
applied to the image for fitting our eyes. This technique is enhancement. The rest of this paper is organized as follows. In
implemented on FPGA of Xilinx Virtex4, and performs Section 2, the method of the novel adaptive image
successfully. enhancement technique is described, and the hardware
architecture to implement this method is presented in Section
Keywords-component; Adaptive Image Enhancement, Edge 3. In Section 4, the experimental results are presented, and the
Sharpening, Threshold Judgment, FPGA
conclusions are reached in Section 5.
I. INTRODUCTION
II. THE METHOD
Image enhancement is usually used to improve image
Figure.1 shows the flow diagram of the adaptive image
quality and visual effects, and is one of the most important
enhancement technique that is proposed in this paper.
components of the digital image processing. The main purpose
of image enhancement is to bring out details that are hidden in
an image, or to widen the contrast in a low contrast image.
Image enhancement produces an output image that looks
subjectively better than the original image by modifying the
intensity of the pixel of the input image [1] [2].
There are many image enhancement methods have been
proposed and developed. The common methods for image
enhancement generally fall into three major categories. The
first category of the method is histogram equalization (HE).
HE gives an overall contrast improvement, as it flattens and
stretches the dynamic range of the image histogram[3].
However, HE is rarely used in practice, because HE changes
the brightness of the image significantly, and makes the image
become saturated with very bright or dark intensity values[4].
Therefore, the adaptive HE (AHE) techniques, those divide the
histogram into several subsections and equalize them
independently, have been proposed [5] [6]. The method in the
second category is un-sharp masking (UM). The classic linear
UM is implemented by passing a low-contrast image through a
linear two-dimensional high-pass filter and then adding a
fraction of its output to the original [7] but it enlarges the image
noise, particularly in uniform areas of even slightly noisy
images and causes overshoot artifacts in high-contrast
regions[8]. Therefore, various adaptive UM (AUM) filters have
been proposed[9][10]. However, these methods above are only
the compromise between de-noising and enhancing image
details, and they are less sensitive to noise present in the input Figure 1. Flow diagram of the technique

978-1-4244-4131-0/09/$25.00 ©2009 IEEE

 It consists of four major function blocks such as sharpening
preprocessing (SE), first-order classifying and intensity
enhancement (FCIE), second-order classifying and intensity
enhancement (SCIE) and contrast enhancement (CE). The first
step is sharpening preprocessing including Laplace filtering
and specification of the outputs. After that, the first-order
classifying based on the output of sharpening preprocessing is
performed and both the high threshold image and the low
threshold image are enhanced to varying degrees. Then, the
second-order classifying based on the histogram of the output
of the first-order classifying is used to adjust the brightness of
the image. Finally, contrast enhancement and histogram
equalization are used in here, and it is performed well.
2.1. Image sharpening preprocessing
There are many ways to sharpen an image, such as some
detail sharpening filters that are based on first-order and
second-order derivatives. The principle of first-order derivative
in image processing is for edge detection, and second-order
derivative has a stronger response to fine detail. In most
applications, the second-order derivative is better suited than
the first-order derivative for image enhancement because of the
ability of the former to enhance fine detail. So the edge of the
image would be more clearly using second-order derivative
sharpening filter, and this paper employ a second derivative
Laplace filter for sharpening preprocessing.
It can find that the Laplace operator, two diagonal
directions included, is linear and isotropic. The second-order
partial differential equations along the 0, 45, 90 and 135
degrees directions are expressed as
⎧ ∂2 f ⎫
⎪ 2 = f ( x + 1, y ) + f ( x − 1, y) − 2 f ( x, y ) ⎪ ⎡1 2 1 ⎤
⎪ ∂x ⎪ 1 ⎢
⎪ ∂2 f ⎪ 16
⎪ 2 = f ( x, y + 1) + f ( x, y − 1) − 2 f ( x, y ) ⎪ ⎢⎣ 1 2 1 ⎥⎦
⎪ ∂y ⎪
⎨ 2 ⎬ （1）
⎪ ∂ f = f ( x + 1, y + 1) + f ( x − 1, y − 1) − 2 f ( x, y) ⎪
⎪ ∂x∂y ⎪
⎪ 2 ⎪ If AVEFL is between MINL and MAXL, the image
⎪ ∂ f = f ( x + 1, y − 1) + f ( x − 1, y + 1) − 2 f ( x, y) ⎪
⎪ ∂y∂x ⎪ the image and Fl ( x, y ) is expressed as:
⎩ ⎭
Then, the result of the Laplace filter in equation (1) is
obtained by summing these four components:
∇ 2 f = f ( x + 1, y ) + f ( x − 1, y ) + f ( x, y + 1)
+ f ( x, y − 1) + f ( x + 1, y + 1) + f ( x − 1, y − 1) （2）
+ f ( x + 1, y − 1) + f ( x − 1, y + 1) − 8 f ( x, y )
The value ∇ 2 f is acquired by second-order partial
differentiation, so the value may not range from a minimum of
0 to a maximum of 255 and some sort of scaling is required to
modify the values. First, the minimum of value is obtained and
its negative value is added to all the values, which will create
minimum-modified values whose minimum values is 0. Then,
all the values are scaled to the interval [0,255] by multiplying
each pixel by the quantity 255/Max, which Max is the
maximum value in the modified minimum-modified values.
Finally, the sharpening result f ' is obtained after
specification.
2.2. The first-order classifying and intensity enhancement
Various methods have been proposed for digital image
processing and different types of images adopt different
methods to process, so the input images are divided into three
categories using histogram statistical method based on the
activity level in the image measured as the average of the
sharpening preprocessing f ' of the image , called AVEFL.
MAXL and MINL are assumed as two positive threshold
values, and the values of them are MINL < MAXL. The input
images are classified belonging to a low threshold image if
AVEFL < MINL, a high threshold image if AVEFL > MAXL,
and a medium threshold image otherwise. Actually, the
maximum threshold MAXL is set to 32 and the minimum
threshold MINL is set to 16 based on experience. These two
values also ease hardware implementation.
If the image belongs to the low threshold image (AVEFL <
MINL), the Laplace filter is employed here and a fraction of its
output is added to the original in order to sharpen the unclear
F ( x, y )
edges. l , the output of the first-order classifying and
intensity enhancement, is defined as:
Fl ( x, y ) = f ( x, y ) + α ⋅ f ' (0 < α ≤ 1) （3）
α is a positive factor set to 0.25 in this paper.
If the image belongs to the high threshold image
(AVEFL > MAXL), the Gauss filter is used here to remove the
noise of the input image to get the better visual effects. The
Gauss filter belongs to low-pass filter, and its operator is
weighted from the mask shown in equation (4).
Gm = ⋅ ⎢ 2 4 2⎥⎥ （4）
Fl ( x, y ) is equaled to the result of the Gauss filter.
belongs to the medium threshold image. There is no change to
Fl ( x, y ) = f ( x, y ) （5）
2.3. The second-order classifying and intensity enhancement
The image of the output of FCIE has a clear edge and its
noise is suppressed effectively, but global brightness of this
image may be so dark or so bright that makes people
uncomfortable. Therefore, it is necessary to adjust the image
brightness. The traditional average adjustment algorithm
means to adjust the intensity of each pixel by the same
numerical value. This paper proposes a non-average
adjustment method that can adjust the intensity by the same
rate.
The images are divided into three categories using
histogram statistical method based on the global intensity level
in the image measured as the average of Fl ( x, y ) , called
AVEFI. MAXI and MINI are defined as two positive threshold
values such that MINI < MAXI and the maximum threshold
MAXI is set to 160 and the minimum threshold MINI is set to
96 in this paper.
If AVEFI < MINI, it is considered that the brightness of the
image is so dark that improves by the rate of β . Fi ( x, y ) , the
output of SCIE is defined as:
Fi ( x, y ) = F ( x, y ) + β ⋅ F ( x, y )
l l
β is a positive factor set to 0.125 in this paper.
If AVEFI > MAXI, the brightness of the image is
considered so bright that reduces by the rate of β . In this
condition, Fl ( x, y ) is expressed as:
Fi ( x, y ) = F ( x, y ) − β ⋅ F ( x, y )
l l
If AVEFI is between MAXI and MINI, the brightness of
the image is neither too dark nor too bright. There is no
change to the intensity of the image and Fl ( x, y ) is
expressed as:
Fi ( x, y ) = F ( x, y )
l
2.4. Contrast enhancement
There are many contrast enhancement techniques have
been proposed and developed. In this paper, histogram
equalization is employed to enhance the contrast of the image.
It is supposed that F = {Fi ( x, y )} shows a digital image
of the output of the second-order classifying and intensity
enhancement where Fi ( x, y ) shows the gray level of the
pixel at (x, y) place. The total number of the image pixels is m,
and intensity of the image is digitized into L levels that range
form 0 to 255. Then, mi is supposed to denote the total number
of pixels with gray level of bi in the image and the probability
density of bi is expressed as
mi
pb (bi ) = , i = 0,1,..., L − 1
m chosen by SELF to get ( Fl ( x, y ) ).
Its cumulative distribution formula is defined as
k
c(bk ) = ∑ pb (bi )
i =0
Where k = 0,1,..., L − 1 , and it is obvious that c(bL −1 ) = 1 .
Thus the transform function of histogram equalization can be
defined as
h(bk ) = b0 + (bL −1 − b0 ) ⋅ c(bk ), k = 0,1,..., L − 1 （11）
It is supposed that G = {G ( x, y )} is defined as the
equalized output image, then
G = h( F ) = {h( Fi ( x, y )) | ∀Fi ( x, y ) ∈ F }
III. HARDWARE ARCHITECTURE
In accordance with the discussions above, the proposed
adaptive image enhancement system can be implemented on
FPGA. The hardware architecture is shown in Figure.2.
（6）
（7）
Figure 2. The hardware architecture of the proposed technique
The input signals of the video image are YUV signals. The
adaptive video image enhancement system processes the Y
（8） signals and leaves the UV signals alone.
First, the Y signals enter the RAM, and they are processed
by line. The RAM is made up of two line buffers and six
registers that can generate 3×3 window data for the Laplace
filter and the sharpening-smoothing processing. The filtering
operators are no needed for the data that belong to the edge of
the whole image including the first-last line and the first-last
column of each video image.
Then, on the one hand, the Laplace filter (LF) is employed
to get the sharpening result after specification. AVEFL is
calculated by the module of filtering histogram specification
and threshold judgment (FHS-TJ) and the activity level of the
image is obtained as the selective signal of the MUXF (SELF)
by comparing AVEFL to MAXL and MINL. On the other
hand, sharpening processing (SHP), smoothing processing
(SMP) and straight-through processing (STP) run respectively
to obtain the three appointed results of the filters, those are
（9）
After that, the average of Fl ( x, y ) of the image called
（10） AVEFI, is calculated by the module of intensity histogram
specification and threshold judgment (IHS-TJ) and the
brightness level of the image is obtained as the selective signal
of the MUXI (SELI) by comparing AVEFI to MAXI and
MINI. At the same time, the processing of intensity increase
(II), intensity decrease (ID) and intensity sameness (IS)
operate solely to get the three appointed results chosen by
SELI to obtain ( Fi ( x, y ) ).
Finally, histogram equalization (HE) is performed to
（12） enhance contrast, and therefore, the outputs of the system are
obtained.
IV. THE EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
In order to illustrate the performance of the proposed
technique and hardware architecture, some results of
simulation of the RTL level are presented in this section. Two
test images, which are “Tiffany” and “Baboon”, are used as
shown in Figure.3. The resolution of images is 512×512.
Some intermediate results and final results using proposed
technique are saved as the images, as shown in Figure.4, that
(a) and (e) are the results after SP; (b) and (f) are the results
after FCIE, those are equal to the results using AUM only; (c)
and (g) are the results after SCIE; (d) and (h) after CE are the
results, those also are the final results using the proposed
technique. Figure.5 displays the output images obtained by the
method only using AHE for comparison. In order to further
analysis, the original images and three methods results, (e) (f)
including AUM, AHE and the proposed technique, are used. In
Figure.6, (a) - (d) are the detailed regions from the magnified
portion of the fruits, (e) - (h) are the edging regions from the
magnified portion the baboon.
It is calculated that the results of AVEFL and AVEFI using
the proposed technique on the fruits image are 11 and 64
respectively. Similarly, the results of AVEFL and AVEFI
using the proposed technique on the baboon image are 38 and
175. The AVEFL on fruits is less than MINL, and the AVEFI
is less than MINI. Therefore, the SHP and II are selected to
operate the proposed technique. Also, The AVEFL on baboon (g) (h)
is greater than MAXL, and the AVEFI is greater than MAXI,
so the SMP and DI are selected to employ the technique. Figure 4. The intermediate and final results with the two original images
using proposed technique. (a) and (e) are the results after SP; (b) and (f) are
the results after FCIE, those are equal to the results using AUM only; (c) and
(g) are the results after SCIE; (d) and (h) after CE are the results, those also
are the final results using the proposed technique.

(a) (b)

Figure 3. The two original images. (a) fruits; (b) baboon.

(a) (b)

Figure 5. The results with the two original images using adaptive HE only.

In figure.6 (a)-(d), it is shown that the contrast of figure.6

(d) is better improvement than figure.6 (c) and the edging is
better sharpening than figure.6 (b) in the detailed regions. In
figure.6 (e)-(h), it is shown that figure.6 (h) is less noisy than
figure.6 (g) and its contrast is better improvement than figure.6
(a) (b) (f) in the detailed regions. On the other side, the proposed
scheme does not distort the image. Therefore, the result
indicates that the proposed scheme provides acceptable
brightness and contrast enhancement from the two original
images.

(c) (d)
 can be used in real-time applications such as the image sensor
and the video signal processing chips.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
We thank to ASIC Design center of Tianjin University and
TJICC for providing us enough software and hardware to
complete this paper. This study is supported by the Ministry of
Education Doctoral Fund Project (200800561112) and Tianjin
Science and Technology Development Program
(08ZCGYGX00400).
(a) (b)
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Figure 6. The magnified portion of Figure.4 and Figure.5. (a) and (e) are the
portion of Figure.3 (a) and Figure.3 (b); (b), (d), (f) and (g) are the portion of
Figure.4 (b), Figure.4 (d), Figure.4 (f) and Figure.4 (g); (c) and (g) are the
portion of Figure.5 (a) and Figure.5 (b).

V. CONCLUSIONS
A novel adaptive technique for video image enhancement
is proposed in this paper. It consists of sharpening, intensity
classifying & enhancement and contrast enhancement.
Experimental results presented in this paper demonstrate that
the technique performs well and achieves visually pleasant
enhancement effects. The proposed technique is also
successfully implemented by FPGA or VLSI technology, and