• 전자공학회논문지 IE
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• v.48 no.2
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• pp.32-39
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• 2011

The output image of the uncooled thermal infrared camera is difficult the identification of target because of the limited dynamic range and the various noises. Retinex algorithm based on the theory of the human visual perception is known to be effective contrast enhancement technique. However, the image quality is insufficient when it is adopted to the narrow dynamic range image as the infrared image. In this paper, we propose the revised retinex algorithm to enhance the contrast of the infrared image. To improve the contrast enhancement performance, we designed the new dynamic range compression function instead of log function. To reduce the noise and compensate the loss of edge, we added the contrast compensation procedure in the MSR image generation process. According to the output picture comparing and numerical analysis, the proposed algorithm shows the better contrast enhancement performance and the more suitable method for the infrared image enhancement.

• Proceedings of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems Conference
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• 2005.04a
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• pp.269-272
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• 2005

The principal objective of enhancement methods is to process an image so that the result is more suitable than the original image for a specific application. Images taken in the night can be low-contrast images because of poor environments. In this paper, we compare the structure of ICECA(Image Contrast Enhancement technique using Clustering Algorithm) with the structures of HE(Histogram Equalization), BBHE(Brightness preserving Bi-Histogram Equalization), and Multi -Scale Retinex(MSR). We compared performances of image enhancement methods by applying these methods to a set of diverse images.

• KSII Transactions on Internet and Information Systems (TIIS)
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• v.15 no.5
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• pp.1814-1828
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• 2021

Low-light image enhancement is a key technique to overcome the quality degradation of photos taken under scotopic vision illumination conditions. The degradation includes low brightness, low contrast, and outstanding noise, which would seriously affect the vision of the human eye recognition ability and subsequent image processing. In this paper, we propose an approach based on deep learning and Retinex theory to enhance the low-light image, which includes image decomposition, illumination prediction, image reconstruction, and image optimization. The first three parts can reconstruct the enhanced image that suffers from low-resolution. To reduce the noise of the enhanced image and improve the image quality, a super-resolution algorithm based on the Laplacian pyramid network is introduced to optimize the image. The Laplacian pyramid network can improve the resolution of the enhanced image through multiple feature extraction and deconvolution operations. Furthermore, a combination loss function is explored in the network training stage to improve the efficiency of the algorithm. Extensive experiments and comprehensive evaluations demonstrate the strength of the proposed method, the result is closer to the real-world scene in lightness, color, and details. Besides, experiments also demonstrate that the proposed method with the single low-light image can achieve the same effect as multi-exposure image fusion algorithm and no ghost is introduced.

• Journal of the Institute of Convergence Signal Processing
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• v.11 no.2
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• pp.104-111
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• 2010

This paper presents an adaptive image enhancement method using the spatial frequency property in the DCT(discrete cosine transform) compressed domain. The dc coefficients, the illumination components of image, are adjusted to compress the dynamic range of image, and the ac coefficients are modified to enhance the contrast by using the human visual system(HVS) and the spatial frequency property. The ac coefficients are separated into vertical direction, horizontal direction, and mixed spatial frequency components, and adaptively modified to minimize the block artifacts that possibly occur in the image enhancement. The proposed method using dynamic range compression and adaptive contrast enhancement shows the advanced performance without the block artifact compared with existing method.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Intelligent Systems
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.467-472
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• 2005

The principal objective of enhancement methods is to process an image so that the output image is more suitable than the original image lot a specific application. Images taken in the night can be low-contrast images because of poor environments. In this paper, we compared the performance of Image Contrast Enhancement Technique Using Clustering Algorithm(ICECA) with those of color adjustment methods such as Histogram Equalization(HE), Brightness Preserving Bi-Histogram Equalization(BBHE), and the Multi-Scale Refiner(MSR). We compared these methods by applying the image enhancement methods to a set of diverse images.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics and Information Engineers
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• v.53 no.6
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• pp.101-109
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• 2016

The images captured by digital still cameras or mobile phones are not always satisfactory because the devices have limited dynamic ranges compared with that of the real world. To cope with the problems, tone mapping function based methods and retinex theory based methods are studied. However, these methods generate a halo artifact or limited enhancement of global and local contrasts. The proposed method estimates illumination information used for image enhancement by optimizing a dynamic range of input image. The estimated illumination information has smoothness characteristic where the luminance is flat and does not have where the luminance changes to prevent the halo artifact. Additionally, the estimated illumination information and surrounding pixel values are considered when the tone mapping function is applied to overcome the limitations of the conventional tone mapping function approach. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm outperforms the conventional methods on objective and subjective criteria.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.22 no.2
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• pp.270-275
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• 2018

Method for improving the image quality are divided into a tone mapping method and a retinex theory based method. Typical example of the image quality enhancement method using tone mapping method is one using image characteristics like histogram. In this paper, we propose a hardware design of real-time wide dynamic range algorithm based on tone mapping method for image quality enhancement. The proposed method divides the image into the luminance and chroma components and then improves the chroma region based on the variation of the luminance component. Adding to that, it is designed to be compatible with the existing 8-bit signal, using high quality image with 12-bit extended signal according to the desired flow. As a result of simulation, it is confirmed that the image quality is improved, and the hardware design is confirmed that the real-time operations is possible at the maximum frequency at 138.26MHz.