Novel contrast enhancement scheme for infrared image using detail-preserving stretching

Jin Hyung Kim, Jun Hyung Kim, Seung Won Jung, Chang Kyun Noh, Sung Jea Ko

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    29 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    A novel contrast enhancement scheme for infrared (IR) image using detail-preserving stretching (DPS) is presented in this paper. Unlike CCD images, the histogram of the IR images is not distributed to the entire dynamic range of the input image. Therefore, in order to enhance the contrast, the proposed method adopts contrast stretching since it has a low computational complexity and preserves the global contrast of the original. However, the stretching often produces unpleasant images that do not contain clear details by limiting the output dynamic range. To solve this problem, we propose a new contrast stretching method based on gradient-domain processing (GDP) that can enhance the local image contrast while preserving the global contrast as well as the image details. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the conventional stretching-based and other image enhancement methods with respect to the visual quality and computational complexity.

    Original languageEnglish
    Article number077002
    JournalOptical Engineering
    Volume50
    Issue number7
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2011 Jul

    Bibliographical note

    Funding Information:
    This research was supported by the Agency for Defense Development (ADD) under the project “Local area processing for EO/IR image” and by Mid-career Researcher Program through a National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korea government (MEST) (No. 2011-0000200).

    Keywords

    • Contrast enhancement
    • Contrast stretching
    • Gradient-domain processing
    • Infrared

    ASJC Scopus subject areas

    • Atomic and Molecular Physics, and Optics
    • General Engineering

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