• Journal of Broadcast Engineering
• /
• v.18 no.5
• /
• pp.722-729
• /
• 2013

For low contrast images, a histogram equalization is possible to easily identify information when the intensity is concentrated in an image. Over contrast enhancement is the problem of generating an unnatural image cognitively because the focus of existing techniques was the contrast enhancement. In order to solve this problem, CLAHE method solves unnatural problems by limiting contrast using a maximum threshold. However, this method has an extra problem that concealed detail information in an image. This paper proposes a detail-map based on the multiple layers block overlapped histogram equalization in order to avoid loss of detail information. Loss of detail information has been made to minimize as combining images with limited contrast enhancement using a detail-map in each layers.

• Journal of Gastric Cancer
• /
• v.21 no.2
• /
• pp.142-154
• /
• 2021

Purpose: Screening image-enhanced endoscopy for gastrointestinal malignant lesions has progressed. However, the influence of the color enhancement settings for the laser endoscopic system on the visibility of lesions with higher color contrast than their surrounding mucosa has not been established. Materials and Methods: Forty early gastric cancers were retrospectively evaluated using color enhancement settings C1 and C2 for laser endoscopic systems with blue laser imaging (BLI), BLI-bright, and linked color imaging (LCI). The visibilities of the malignant lesions in the stomach with the C1 and C2 color enhancements were scored by expert and non-expert endoscopists and compared, and the color differences between the malignant lesions and the surrounding mucosa were assessed. Results: Early gastric cancers mainly appeared orange-red on LCI and brown on BLI-bright or BLI. The surrounding mucosae were purple on LCI regardless of the color enhancement but brown or pale green with C1 enhancement and dark green with C2 enhancement on BLI-bright or BLI. The mean visibility scores for BLI-bright, BLI, and LCI with C2 enhancement were significantly higher than those with C1 enhancement. The superiority of the C2 enhancement was not demonstrated in the assessments by non-experts, but it was significant for experts using all modes. The C2 color enhancement produced a significantly greater color difference between the malignant lesions and the surrounding mucosa, especially with the use of BLI-bright (P=0.033) and BLI (P<0.001). C2 enhancement tended to be superior regardless of the morphological type, Helicobacter pylori status, or the extension of intestinal metaplasia around the cancer. Conclusions: Appropriate color enhancement settings improve the visibility of malignant lesions in the stomach and color contrast between the malignant lesions and the surrounding mucosa.

• Tuberculosis and Respiratory Diseases
• /
• v.43 no.4
• /
• pp.519-526
• /
• 1996

Background : Clinical and Radiographic studies to differentiate benign from malignant pulmonary nodules have previously focused on clinical status and the morphologic and the computed tomographic attenuation characteristics of the lung nodules. Distinctive differences in the vascularity and pathophysiology of malignant versus benign pulmonary nodules were identified. We evaluated the diagnostic method for differentiating malignant from benign solitary pulmonary nodule by contrast enhancement on the spiral CT. Method : Sixteen patients with solitary pulmonary nodule were examined(Tuberculoma 8, primary lung cancer 8). Serial thin section on the spiral CT was performed before and after(45second, 2min, 5min) the onset of the injection of 100mL of nonionic contrast material(2mL/sec). Results : There was no difference in size of nodule and pre-contrast CT number (Hounsfield unit) between benign and malignant nodules. At forty-five second after the onset of the injection, malignant neoplasms($19.6{\pm}7.9$ HU) enhanced significantly more than tuberculomas($4.9{\pm}9.4$ HU, p=0.008). At 2minute and 5 minute after, malignant neoplasms($34.0{\pm}19.2$HU, $34.0{\pm}15.4$HU) enhanced significantly more than tuberculomas ($6.7{\pm}9.7$HU, p=0.007 and $7.7{\pm}11.5$HU, p=0.011). On cut-off value 20HU(contrast enhancement) 2minute after the injection of contrast media, sensitivity was 87% and specificity was 87%. No correlation between the contrast enhancement and size of the nodules was observed. Conclusion : Studies with the use of an intravenously administered noniodinated contrast medium in examining the enhancement properties of lung nodules was performed. The contrast enhancement was useful in differential diagnosis of solitary pulmonary nodules.

• Journal of Internet Computing and Services
• /
• v.10 no.3
• /
• pp.173-185
• /
• 2009

This paper proposes two new image contrast enhancement methods, RSWHE (Recursively Separated and Weighted Histogram Equalization) and RSWHS (Recursively Separated and Weighted Histogram Specification). RSWHE is a histogram equalization method based on histogram decomposition and weighting, whereas RSWHS is a histogram specification method based on histogram decomposition and weighting. The two proposed methods work as follows: 1) decompose an input histogram based on the image's mean brightness, 2) compute the probability for the area corresponding to each sub-histogram, 3) modify the sub-histogram by weighting it with the computed probability value, 4) lastly, perform histogram equalization (in the case of RSWHE) or histogram specification (in the case of RSWHS) on the modified sub-histograms independently. Experimental results show that RSWHE and RSWHS outperform other methods in terms of contrast enhancement and mean brightness preservation as well.

• Journal of Korean Society for Geospatial Information Science
• /
• v.11 no.1 s.24
• /
• pp.13-19
• /
• 2003

In this paper we discussed the processing procedures of histogram equalization(HE) method and brightness preserving bi-histogram equalization(BBHE) method in the contrast enhancement methods for the performance comparison. With remotely sensed image data of Landsat TM we compared the performances of three methods of Min-Max method, HE method, BBHE method. The experimental results demonstrate that the HE method and BBHE method are more effective in the contrast enhancement performances than the Min-Max method. In the HE method the mean brightness of the resultant output images approached to the middle gray level with regardless of input image mean. In the BBHE method, it is capable of preserving the mean brightness of a original image compared to the HE method while enhancing the contrast of original image effectively. Thus BBHE method is provided more natural enhancement effect than the HE method.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Radiology
• /
• v.13 no.6
• /
• pp.879-887
• /
• 2019

The purpose of this study is to establish a physiological injection protocol according to body weight, in order to minimize amount of contrast medium and optimize contrast enhancement in pediatric patients performing thoracic CT examinations. The 80 pediatric patients under the age of 10 were studied. Intravenous contrast material containing 300 mgI/ml was used. The group A injected with a capacity of 1.5 times its weight, and groups B, C and D added 5 to 15 ml of normal saline with a 10% decrease in each. The physiologic model which can be calculated by weight about amount of injection of contrast medium and normal saline, flow rate and delay time were applied. To assess image quality, measured average HU value and SNR of superior vena cava, pulmonary artery, ascending and descending aorta, right and left atrium, right and left ventricle. CT numbers of subclavian vein and superior vena cava were compared to identify the effects of reducing artifacts due to normal saline. Comparing SNR according to the contrast medium injection protocol, significant differences were found in superior vena cava and pulmonary artery, descending aorta, right and left ventricle, and CT numbers showed significant differences in all organs. In particular, B group with a 10% decrease in contrast medium and an additional injection of saline showed a low degree of contrast enhancement in groups with a decrease of more than 20%. In addition, the group injected with normal saline greatly reduced contrast enhancement of subclavian vein and superior vena cava, and the beam hardening artifact by contrast medium was significantly attenuated. In conclusion, the application of physiological protocol for injection of contrast medium in pediatric thoracic CT examinations was able to reduce artifacts by contrast medium, prevent unnecessary use of contrast medium and improve the effect of contrast enhancement.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
• /
• v.15 no.10
• /
• pp.1205-1211
• /
• 2012

Recently, the evaluating method of the bone mineral density (BMD) in X-ray absorptiometry image has been studied for the early diagnosis of osteoporosis which is known as a metabolic disease. The BMD, in general, is evaluated by calculating pixel intensity in the bone segmented regions. Accurate bone region extraction is extremely crucial for the BMD evaluation. So, a X-Ray image enhancement is needed to get precise bone segmentation. In this paper, we propose an image enhancement method of X-ray image having multiple noise based sparse representation. To evaluate the performance of proposed method, we employ the contrast to noise ratio (CNR) metric and cut-view graphs visualizing image enhancement performance. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the BayesShrink noise reduction methods and the previous noise reduction method in sparse representation with general noise model.

• International Journal of Naval Architecture and Ocean Engineering
• /
• v.6 no.4
• /
• pp.840-866
• /
• 2014

Visibility in underwater images is usually poor because of the attenuation of light in the water that causes low contrast and color variation. In this paper, a new approach for underwater image quality improvement is presented. The proposed method aims to improve underwater image contrast, increase image details, and reduce noise by applying a new method of using contrast stretching to produce two different images with different contrasts. The proposed method integrates the modification of the image histogram in two main color models, RGB and HSV. The histograms of the color channel in the RGB color model are modified and remapped to follow the Rayleigh distribution within certain ranges. The image is then converted to the HSV color model, and the S and V components are modified within a certain limit. Qualitative and quantitative analyses indicate that the proposed method outperforms other state-of-the-art methods in terms of contrast, details, and noise reduction. The image color also shows much improvement.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Telematics and Electronics B
• /
• v.31B no.8
• /
• pp.160-171
• /
• 1994

The wide dynamic range and severely attenuated contrast in mediastinal area appearing in typical chest radiographs have often caused difficulties in effective visualization and diagnosis of lung diseases. This paper proposes a new adaptive image enhancement technique which potentially solves this problem and there by improves observer performance through image processing. In the proposed method image processing is applied to the chest radiograph with different processing parameters for the lung field and mediastinum adaptively since there are much differences in anatomical and imaging properties between these two regions. To achieve this the chest radiograph is divided into the lung and mediastinum by gray level thresholding using the cumulative histogram and the dynamic range compression and local contrast enhancement are carried out selectively in the mediastinal region. Thereafter a gray scale transformation is performed considering the JND(just noticeable difference) characteristic for effective image displa. The processed images showed apparenty improved contrast in mediastinum and maintained moderate brightness in the lung field. No artifact could be observed. In the visibility evaluation experiment with 5 radiologists the processed images with better visibility was observed for the 5 important anatomical structures in the thorax.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
• /
• 2001.06b
• /
• pp.176-180
• /
• 2001

In this paper, we have studies the images have been reconstructed by using combination of images which has been acquired by the variation of operating frequency. When inner images has been reconstructed, inner image has been superposition by surface state effect. In this case, image enhancement the phase object and enhance the contrast of inner image. In the result of the specimen for the round defect with 2mm diameter, for the types of the depth are 1.5mm, 2mm, 2.5mm, and 3mm, it has been show that the shape of defect has better than before this processing and phase contrast grow large twice. And we have constructed the acoustic microscope by using quadrature detector that is able simultaneously to acquired the amplitude and phase of the reflected signal. Father more we have studied the reconstruction method of the amplitude and phase images and the enhancement method of the defect images' contrast.