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Histogram image enhancement using a limited wavelet integer coefficient

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Abstract

Histogram equalization plays an important role in digital image preprocessing. However, traditional histogram equalization tends to have technical defects such as over-enhancement and artifacts. This can lead to a loss of detail and make the target image look unnatural. To resolve this issue, this paper presents an approach to image enhancement that uses a limited wavelet integer coefficient histogram to maintain high information entropy. First, a single-layer wavelet transform is performed on the input image to obtain a low-frequency sub-image and three high-frequency sub-images. Then, the low-frequency sub-image is subjected to a histogram-limitation technique to acquire the wavelet integer coefficients. After this, the processed low-frequency and three high-frequency sub-images are reconstructed to output a single high-information enhanced image. An experiment was conducted that shows that the proposed method performs very well in terms of the amount of detailed information captured when compared to an existing improved method based on histogram equalization. In addition, the method can handle the enhancement of images across different dynamic ranges, especially images with narrow a dynamic range, thus improving the amount of detailed information in the output image and maximizing the visual effect for human observers.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to express their gratitude to EditSprings (https://www.editsprings.com/) for the expert linguistic services provided. This project is supported by the Natural Science Fund Project of Colleges in Jiangsu Province(grant number 18KJB520012).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Information Center, Jiangsu University of Technology, Changzhou, People’s Republic of China

    Haifeng Wang & Yi Zhang

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  1. Haifeng Wang
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  2. Yi Zhang
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Correspondence to Haifeng Wang.

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Wang, H., Zhang, Y. Histogram image enhancement using a limited wavelet integer coefficient. Multimed Tools Appl 82, 14879–14896 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11042-022-14060-y

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