Image contrast enhancement using adjacent-blocks-based modification for local histogram equalization

摘要

Highlights?The proposed method achieves considerable contrast enhancement.?The concept of extend histogram is proposed.?Non-uniformity and over-enhancement effects can be significantly restrained.AbstractInfrared images usually have some non-ideal characteristics such as weak target-to-background contrast and strong noise. Because of these characteristics, it is necessary to apply the contrast enhancement algorithm to improve the visual quality of infrared images. Histogram equalization (HE) algorithm is a widely used contrast enhancement algorithm due to its effectiveness and simple implementation. But a drawback of HE algorithm is that the local contrast of an image cannot be equally enhanced. Local histogram equalization algorithms are proved to be the effective techniques for local image contrast enhancement. However, over-enhancement of noise and artifacts can be easily found in the local histogram equalization enhanced images. In this paper, a new contrast enhancement technique based on local histogram equal