• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Electrical Engineers P
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• v.62 no.2
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• pp.90-94
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• 2013

In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to improve the contrast ratio, to preserve information of bright regions and to maintain the color of backlight image that appears with a great relative contrast. Backlight images of the natural environment have characteristics for difference of local brightness; the overall image contrast improvement is not easy. To improve the contrast of the backlight images, MSR (Multi-Scale Retinex) algorithm using the existing multi-scale Gaussian filter is applied. However, existing multi-scale Gaussian filter involves color distortion and information loss of bright regions due to excessive contrast enhancement and noise because of the brightness improvement of dark regions. Moreover, it also increases computational complexity due to the use of multi-scale Gaussian filter. In order to solve these problems, a linear MSR is performed that reduces the amount of computation from the HSV color space preventing the color distortion and information loss due to excessive contrast enhancement. It can also remove the noise of the dark regions which is occurred due to the improved contrast through edge preserving filter. Through experimental evaluation of the average color difference comparison of CIELAB color space and the visual assessment, we have confirmed excellent performance of the proposed algorithm compared to conventional MSR algorithm.

• Fisheries and Aquatic Sciences
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• v.14 no.2
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• pp.130-137
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• 2011

Visual stimuli of nets, which affect fishing selectivity, vary by twine diameter, color, and material under different light conditions and visual geometries. In this study, two cylindrical model codends of two mesh sizes, 28 and 43 mm, were made of high-contrast, dark brown polyethylene (PE) netting twine and low contrast, light-blue polyamid (PA) monofilament twine. Each model codend was filled with juvenile seabream and set in the water channel of a light-blue circular tank under a flow speed 0.8 m/s for 30 min. Light conditions were set to relatively bright, dim, and dark. The resulting retention rates of juvenile seabream were 15-35% lower for the low-contrast codend with PA monofilament than for the high contrast PE twine netting under bright and dim light conditions, while no difference was observed under dark conditions. The effects of mesh size and netting contrast on the retention rate were dependent on the light level, while the retention rate due to netting contrast was independent of mesh size. Therefore, low-contrast nets in the codend could help to reduce juvenile bycatch by disturbing the orderly optomotor response.

• Korean Journal of Veterinary Research
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• v.55 no.1
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• pp.47-52
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• 2015

The purpose of this study was to determine if contrast media would enhance visualization of the endocardium for assessment of left ventricle (LV) function. In addition, differences between pre- and post-contrast evaluation for the cardiac output measurements including the modified Simpson's method and automated contour tracking (ACT) method were examined. Ten clinically healthy adult beagle dogs (three males and seven females) between 2~3 years old and weighing 6.6~10.8 kg were used. Echocardiographic examinations were performed to compare pre- and post-contrast LV endocardium visualization using a segmental scoring method. Two different methods for measuring cardiac output were also compared. LV visualization was significantly enhanced in post-contrast echocardiography (p < 0.01). Significant differences between pre- and post-contrast measurements for the modified Simpson's method (p < 0.05) were also observed. No significant difference was found for the ACT method. Contrast echocardiography provides better LV chamber opacification and significantly improves wall segment visualization. Furthermore, contrast echocardiography for measuring cardiac output is helpful for the modified Simpson's method.

• Journal of Electrical Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.1233-1243
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• 2015

The contrast enhancement is great challenge in the image processing when images are suffering from poor contrast problem. Therefore, in order to overcome this problem an automatic method is proposed for contrast enhancement of natural color images. The proposed method consist of two stages: in first stage lightness component in YIQ color space is normalized by sigmoid function after the adaptive histogram equalization is applied on Y component and in second stage automatic color contrast enhancement algorithm is applied on output of the first stage. The proposed algorithm is tested on different NASA color images, hyperspectral color images and other types of natural color images. The performance of proposed algorithm is evaluated and compared with the other existing contrast enhancement algorithms in terms of colorfulness metric and color enhancement factor. The higher values of colorfulness metric and color enhancement factor imply that the visual quality of the enhanced image is good. Simulation results demonstrate that proposed algorithm provides higher values of colorfulness metric and color enhancement factor as compared to other existing contrast enhancement algorithms. The proposed algorithm also provides better visual enhancement results as compared with the other existing contrast enhancement algorithms.

• Journal of Korean Ophthalmic Optics Society
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.355-362
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• 2015

Purpose: To investigate the effects of the transmittance of diffusive blurson visual acuity and contrast sensitivity. Methods: Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity were measured by using Optec$^{(R)}$ 6500 in Healthy 30 subjects aged $22.83{\pm}0.50$ (male 13, female 17) who were recruited from university students. Cataract simulator was used as a tool for diffusive blur. Visual acuity and contrast sensitivity were measured with varying the transmittance of diffusive blur in order to simulate progression of cataract and concentration in fog. Results: Visual acuity was reduced proportionally with decreasing the transmittance of the diffusive blur as follows: $VA(T)=1.84{\times}10^{-2}T-0.645$. Contrast sensitivity was decreased in all spatial frequencies. Contrast sensitivity in a high spatial frequency band was a greater effect and was off the normal range of contrast sensitivity. The peak of contrast sensitivity was moved in the direction to low frequency. From an intersection point of contrast sensitivity function, we could calculated the transmittance of the diffusive blur being off the normal range and the shift to peak spatial frequency. The peak of contrast sensitivity function was observed to move from 6 to 3 cpd at transmittance of about 78.70%, the contrast sensitivities for all frequencies at transmittance of about 69.71% were deviated from the normal range. Conclusions: The transmittance of diffusive blur causes a reduction in visual acuity and contrast sensitivity, a deviation of normal range of contrast sensitivity, and a shift of peak contrast sensitivity. Therefore the more attention is required when suffering from cataracts or driving in fog.

• The Korean Journal of Pain
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• v.29 no.4
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• pp.255-261
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• 2016

Background: Thoracic epidural anesthesia is frequently used to maintain intraoperative and postoperative analgesia. Frequently, 3 ml of local anesthetic is used as a test dose, or for intermittent epidural injection. We assessed the extent of the spread of 3 ml of contrast medium in the thoracic epidural space and attempted to identify any correlating factors affecting the epidurography. Methods: A total of 70 patients were enrolled in the study, and thoracic epidural catheterizations were performed under fluoroscopic guidance. Using 3 ml of contrast medium, epidurography was evaluated to confirm the number of spinal segments covered by the contrast medium. Correlation analysis was performed between patient characteristics (sex, age, body mass index, weight, height, and location of catheter tip) and the extent of the contrast spread. Results: The mean number of vertebral segments evaluated by contrast medium was $7.9{\pm}2.2$ using 3 ml of contrast medium. The contrast spread in the cranial direction showed more extensive distribution than that in the caudal direction, with statistical significance (P < 0.01). Patient height demonstrated a negative correlation with the extent of distribution of contrast medium (r = -0.311, P < 0.05). Conclusions: Thoracic epidurography using 3 ml of contrast medium results in coverage of a mean of $7.9{\pm}2.2$ spinal segments, with more extensive cranial spread, and patient height showed a weak negative correlation with the distribution of contrast medium.

• Journal of the Institute of Electronics Engineers of Korea SC
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• v.45 no.1
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• pp.15-24
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• 2008

This paper proposes a scheme of global image contrast enhancement using local contrast improvement. Methods of global image contrast enhancement redistribute the image gray level distribution using histogram equalization without considering image properties, and cause the result image to include image pixels with excessive brightness. On the other hand, methods of the block-based local image contrast enhancement have blocking artifacts and a problem of eliminating important image features during an image process to reduce them. In order to solve these problems, the proposed method executes the block-based histogram equalization on temporary images that an input image is divided into various fixed-size blocks. And then it performs the global contrast enhancement by applying the global histogram equalization functions to the original input image. Since the proposed method selects the best histogram equalization function from temporary images that are improved by the block-based local image contrast enhancement, it has the advantages of both the local and global image contrast enhancement approaches.

• Journal of Korea Multimedia Society
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.1409-1416
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• 2012

An image segmentation result depends on pre-processing steps such as contrast enhancement, edge detection, and smooth filtering etc. Especially medical images are low contrast and contain some noises. Therefore, the contrast enhancement and noise removal techniques are required in the pre-processing. In this study, we present an extension by a novel histogram equalization in which both local and global contrast is enhanced using neighborhood metrics. When checking neighborhood information, filters can simultaneously improve image quality. Most important is that original image information can be used for both global brightness preserving and local contrast enhancement, and image quality improvement filtering. Our experiments confirmed that the proposed method is more effective than other similar techniques reported previously.

• MALSORI
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• no.56
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• pp.1-13
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• 2005

This study examined the speech intelligibility of one-syllable words with phonetic contrasts and analyzed segmental factors that can predict the overall speech intelligibility in hearing-impaired adults. To identify the speech error characteristics, a Korean word list was audio-recorded by 7 hearing-impaired adults, and 35 listeners selected the heard word out of 5 choices. Based in part on previous studies of speech of the hearing impaired, the word list consisted of monosyllabic consonant-vowel-consonant (CVC) real word pairs. Stimulus words included 77 phonetic contrast pairs. The results showed that the percentage of errors in final position (coda) contrast was higher than in any other position in syllable. And the intelligibility deficit factors of phonetic contrast in the hearing-impaired were analyzed through stepwise regression analysis. The overall intelligibility was predicted by the error rate of manner contrast at coda, voicing contrast (homorganic triplets) at onset and high-low contrast at nucleus.

• Journal of the Korean Magnetic Resonance Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.9-17
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• 2010

The water proton relaxation rates increase linearly with concentrations of contrast agents, and could be expressed as a function of the concentrations. In this paper, we have investigated MR properties of two different contrast agents, $GdCl_3$ and $CoCl_2$. Relaxivity coefficients were calculated from individual contrast agent solutions, and used for predicting relaxation rates at mixtures of two contrast agents. From the experimental results, we have discussed the feasibility of constructing water solutions with the desired relaxation times using specific mixtures of contrast agents.