• Journal of Korea Society of Digital Industry and Information Management
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.193-198
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• 2010

In this paper, an efficient contrast enhancement algorithm using histogram stretching is proposed. Histogram equalization (HE) and histogram stretching (HS) are effective techniques for contrast enhancement. However, HE and HS result often in excessive contrast enhancement. Proposed technique not only produces better results than those of conventional contrast enhancement techniques, but is also adaptively adjusted to image contents.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.26 no.4
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• pp.395-401
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• 2010

Image enhancement algorithm aims to improve the visual quality of low contrast image through eliminating the noise and blurring, increasing contrast, and raising detail. This paper proposes adaptive dynamic range linear stretching(ADRLS) algorithm based on advantages of existing methods. ADRLS method is focused on generating sub-histograms of the majority through partitioning the histogram of input image and applying adaptive scale factor. Generated sub-histograms are finally applied by linear stretching(LS) algorithm. In order to validate proposed method, it is compared with LS and histogram equalization(HE) algorithm generally used. As the result, the proposed method show to improve contrast of input image and to preserve distinct characteristics of histogram by controlling excessive change of brightness.

• Korean Journal of Remote Sensing
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• v.28 no.3
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• pp.287-296
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• 2012

Although low spatial resolution satellite images like MODIS and GOCI can be important to observe land surface, it is often difficult to visually interpret the imagery because of the low contrast by prevailing cloud covers. We proposed a simple and adaptive stretching algorithm to enhance image contrast over land areas in cloudy images. The proposed method is basically a linear algorithm that stretches only non-cloud pixels. The adaptive linear stretch method uses two values: the low limit (L) from image statistics and upper limit (U) from low boundary value of cloud pixels. The cloud pixel value was automatically determined by pre-developed empirical function for each spectral band. We used MODIS and GOCI images having various types of cloud distributions and coverage. The adaptive contrast stretching method was evaluated by both visual interpretation and statistical distribution of displayed brightness values.

• Journal of the Korea Society of Computer and Information
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• v.15 no.12
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• pp.37-45
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• 2010

This paper proposes a novel contrast enhancement method which determines the stretching ranges based on the distribution densities of segmented sub-histogram. In order to enhance the quality of image effectively, the contrast histogram is segmented into sub-histograms based on the density in each brightness region. Then the stretching range of each sub-histogram is determined by analysing its distribution density. The higher density region is extended wider than lower density region in the histogram. This method solves the over stretching problem, because it stretches using density rate of each area on the histogram. To evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithm, the experiments have been carried out on complex contrast images, and its superiority has been confirmed by comparing with the conventional methods.

• Journal of the Korea Institute of Information and Communication Engineering
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• v.19 no.11
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• pp.2540-2545
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• 2015

In this paper, we propose a novel method to extract appendix from ultrasound image automatically to avoid such subjectivity issue. In the process, we apply a series of image processing algorithms such as Ends_in search stretching for emphasizing brightness contrast and binarization, region labelling, and cubic spline interpolation for extracting lower bound fasicia line that is the base of extracting the appendix. Knowing that the appendix is located at the lower organ area below the bottom fascia line, we conduct a series of image processing techniques to find the fascia line correctly. And then we apply ART2 algorithm to the organ area in order to extract appendix accurately. Through experiment, the effectiveness of the proposed method is verified based on the field experts' evaluations.

• Journal of the Semiconductor & Display Technology
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.50-55
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• 2015

This paper proposes a new histogram partition stretching and shrinking method for infrared image enhancement. The proposed method divides the histogram of an input image into three partitions according to its mean value and standard deviation. The method stretches both the dark partition and the bright partition of the histogram, while it shrinks the medium partition. As the result, both the dark part and the bright part of the image have more brightness levels. The proposed method is implemented using C language in an embedded Linux system for a high-speed real-time image processing. Experiments were conducted by using various infrared images. The results show that the proposed algorithm is successful for the infrared image enhancement.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.16 no.1
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• pp.658-665
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• 2015

In the production of medical images, noise reduction and contrast enhancement are important methods to increase qualities of processing results. By using the edge-based denoising and adaptive nonlinear histogram stretching, a novel medical image enhancement algorithm is proposed. First, a medical image is decomposed by wavelet transform, and then all high frequency sub-images are decomposed by Haar transform. At the same time, edge detection with Sobel operator is performed. Second, noises in all high frequency sub-images are reduced by edge-based soft-threshold method. Third, high frequency coefficients are further enhanced by adaptive weight values in different sub-images. Finally, an adaptive nonlinear histogram stretching method is applied to increase the contrast of resultant image. Experimental results show that the proposed algorithm can enhance a low contrast medical image while preserving edges effectively without blurring the details.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Automotive Engineers
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.51-60
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• 2013

In this paper, to control the existing headlamp control system using steering wheel angle more efficiently and more actively, image processing algorithm which improved the detection rate of lane at night based on camera was suggested. And to recognize road lane more clearly in the conditions of low illumination, new algorithms were developed in the aspects of improving brightness, extracting clear lane edge and using the characteristics of lane. Through this research, it turned out that lane detection ability by using the normalized stretching, angular mask and expected-area scan have good performance in the night compare to existing algorithms.

• Journal of Digital Contents Society
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• v.14 no.1
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• pp.7-14
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• 2013

As mobiles devices with high-spec camera built in are used widely, the visual quality enhancement of the high-resolution images turns out to be one of the key capabilities of the mobile devices. Due to the limited computational resources of the mobile devices and the size of the high-resolution images, we should choose an image processing algorithm not too complex and use an efficient implementation technology. One of the simple and widely used image quality enhancement algorithms is contrast stretching. Java libraries running on a virtual machine, JNI (Java Native Interface) based native C/C++, and NEONTM SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) are common implementation technologies in the case of Android smartphones. Using these three implementation technologies, we have implemented two image contrast stretching algorithms - linear and equalized, and compared the computation times. The native C/C++ and the NEONTM SIMD outperformed the native C/C++ implementation by 56-78 and 50-76 time faster respectively.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.17 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

We propose an adaptive histogram stretching algorithm for application to a car's personal recorder. The algorithm was used for pre-processing to detect the license plate region in an image from a personal recorder. The algorithm employs a Probability Density Function (PDF) and Cumulative Distribution Function (CDF) to analyze the distribution diagram of the images. These two functions are calculated using an image obtained by sampling at a certain pixel interval. The images were subjected to different levels of stretching, and experiments were done on the images to extract their characteristics. The results show that the proposed algorithm provides less deterioration than conventional algorithms. Moreover, contrast is enhanced according to the characteristics of the image. The algorithm could provide better performance than existing algorithms in applications for detecting search regions for license plates.