Improving histogram-based image contrast enhancement using gray-level information histogram with application to X-ray images

Many applications of histogram-based techniques for the purposes of image enhancement are well known. However, these techniques often fail to produce satisfactory results for a broad variety of low-contrast images (e.g., X-ray images). In this paper, we propose a new form of histogram for image contrast enhancement. The input image is first divided into several equal-sized regions according to the intensities of gradients, their corresponding statistical values of gray levels are then modified respectively, and finally the processed histogram for the whole image is obtained by the summation of all the weighted values of regions. The fundamental characteristic of this new form of histogram is that the amplitudes of its components can objectively reflect the contribution of the gray levels to the representation of image information. Accordingly, this new histogram is called gray-level information histogram. The performance of many histogram-based enhancement techniques might be improved dramatically using the proposed histogram. Testing on the X-ray images validates the effectiveness of the new histogram.     

Evidence for a single hydrogen molecule connected by an atomic chain

Stable, single-molecule conducting-bridge configurations are typically identified from peak structures in a conductance histogram. In previous work on Pt with H2 at cryogenic temperatures it has been shown that a peak near 1G0 identifies a single-molecule Pt-H2-Pt bridge. The histogram shows an additional structure with lower conductance that has not been identified. Here, we show that it is likely due to a hydrogen decorated Pt chain in contact with the H2 molecular bridge.     

一种基于亮度直方图的自动曝光控制方法

自动曝光控制是现代相机和摄像机必备功能之一。提出一种基于亮度直方图的自动曝光控制算法。基于人类视觉系统(HVS)的视觉注意机制,可认为直方图中大而陡峭的峰值区域对应于图像中的不感兴趣区域。算法寻找直方图中最大的两个峰值区域,并依据峰值区域的大小确定它们中像素亮度的加权值,从而计算图像的加权亮度均值。像素亮度的加权值与其所属峰值区域的大小之间的关系由一组二次型曲线描述,二次型曲线的参量是由图像的背景亮度决定,其中背景亮度由自动曝光系统参量计算得到。在实际应用中采用了模糊逻辑确定最大的两个峰值区域的加权值。实验结果表明该算法对各种场景均能进行有效的自动曝光控制。     

一种基于积分直方图的粒子滤波跟踪方法

用积分直方图技术提出了一种低复杂度的粒子滤波跟踪方法和基于积分颜色直方图的观测似然模型.采用积分方向直方图建立一个检测响应图,用其上的观测信息构建建议分布函数,在状态空间中似然概率较大的子空间中进行粒子采样.仿真结果表明,在采用大量粒子跟踪大目标时,提出的跟踪方法的计算复杂度明显低于直方图直接提取的粒子滤波方法, 而且在光照变化的条件下,比采用传统颜色Mean-Shift的跟踪方法准确.     

Gradient-norm-based histogram equalization taking account of HSV color space distribution

In the present paper, we propose an image contrast enhancement method that can enhance the contrast of a color image naturally by taking account of a color space shape. The proposed method realizes the natural enhancement based on two kinds of intensity histograms: a gradient-norm-based histogram and an ideal histogram derived from the shape of a color space. The former histogram is used to suppress over-enhancement in the flat regions of an image and the latter histogram is used to prevent the whole image from being darken. Concretely, the aforementioned intensity histograms are appropriately mixed into a histogram with a weight based on the average intensity of the input image. The contrast enhancement of the input image is realized using the cumulative histogram of the mixed histogram as an intensity transform function. To verify the validity of the proposed method, in experiments, the proposed method is applied to a variety of images and experimental results are evaluated qualitatively and quantitatively.     

Dielectric response of water confined in metal–organic frameworks

Dielectric response of water confined in metal–organic frameworks was investigated in broad temperature range from 140 to 410 K and from 20 Hz to 1 MHz using a capacitance bridge. Several dispersion regions of characteristic shape were found, caused by freezing–melting of adsorbed water molecules, which disappear after a prolonged heating at 410 K. Temperature dependencies of relaxation time of confined water molecules were obtained and are compared to those of water confined in MCM-41 mesoporous molecular sieves.     

基于改进的二维指数熵及混沌粒子群的阈值分割

鉴于现常用的灰度级—平均灰度级二维直方图区域划分存在明显的不足,提出了基于灰度级—梯度二维直方图的指数熵阈值选取方法,给出了基于改进的二维直方图的指数熵阈值选取公式,并利用混沌粒子群优化算法寻找最佳分割阈值,采用递推方式降低迭代过程中适应度函数的计算代价。实验结果表明,与现有的有关算法相比,该方法不仅使分割后的图像区域内部更均匀、边界形状更准确、特征细节更清晰,而且使计算效率及粒子群的收敛精度得到提高。     

基于地物光谱特征分析的高分辨率遥感图像水上桥梁提取

水上桥梁是一种典型的人造目标。利用高分辨率遥感图像进行水上桥梁提取,对于民用、军用和商业都具有重要意义。论文在分析地物光谱特征的基础上,提出了一种利用高分辨率近红外波段遥感图像进行水上桥梁提取的方法。首先,根据水体在近红外波段的光谱特征,采用迭代法选取阈值提取水体信息,以限制桥梁提取的空间范围;然后,对水体信息进行数学形态学运算,以连接因桥梁而断开的水体;其次,对数学形态学操作前后的水体信息进行叠加分析,以提取候选桥梁目标;最后,在桥梁先验特征知识的辅助下,去除伪桥梁目标。论文设计了仿真实验,以验证方法的有效性和适用性。实验结果表明,基于地物光谱特征分析的高分辨率遥感图像水上桥梁提取方法是行之有效的。     

A soft-segmentation visualization scheme for magnetic resonance images

Prevalent visualization tools exploit gray value distribution in images through modified histogram equalization and matching technique, referred to as the window width/window level-based method, to improve visibility and enhance diagnostic value. The window width/window level tool is extensively used in magnetic resonance (MR) images to highlight tissue boundaries during image interpretation. However, the identification of different regions and distinct boundaries between them based on gray-level distribution and displayed intensity levels is extremely difficult because of the large dynamic range of tissue intensities inherent in MR images. We propose a soft-segmentation visualization scheme to generate pixel partitions from the histogram of MR image data using a connectionist approach and then generate selective visual depictions of pixel partitions using pseudo color based on an appropriate fuzzy membership function. By applying the display scheme in clinical examples in this study, we could demonstrate additional overlapping regions between distinct tissue types in healthy and diseased areas (in the brain) that could help improve the tissue characterization ability of MR images.     

A New Threshold Selection Method for Separation of Objects and Background

A new threshold selection algorithm for objects and background separation using a histogram of the number of foreground regions was proposed. This method used a human separation method for objects and background, examined the changes in the number of foreground regions in the image with varying threshold and determined a proper threshold value. The proposed technique was applied to several images and was compared with other histogram-based segmentation methods. The possibility of extension to multi-level thresholding was also examined.     

Two-dimensional Otsu's thresholding segmentation method based on grid box filter

Otsu algorithm, an automatic thresholding method, is widely used in classic image segmentation applications. In this paper, a novel two-dimensional (2D) Otsu thresholding algorithm based on local grid box filter is proposed. In our method, firstly by utilizing the coarse-to-fine idea, the 2D histogram is divided into regions by grid technique, and each region is used as a point to form a new 2D histogram, to which 2D Otsu thresholding algorithm and an improved particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm are applied to get the region number of the new 2D histogram threshold. Then on the result region, the mean of the 2D histogram is computed base on box filter, and the two algorithms are applied again to obtain the final threshold for the original image. Experimental results on real data show that the proposed algorithm gets better segmentation results than the traditional recursion Otsu algorithm. It significantly reduces the time of segmentation process and simultaneously has the higher segmentation accuracy.     

Adaptive threshold selection for background removal in fringe projection profilometry

In fringe projection profilometry, background and shadow are inevitable in the image of an object, and must be identified and removed. In existing methods, it is nontrivial to determine a proper threshold to segment the background and shadow regions, especially when the gray-level histogram of the image is close to unimodal, and an improper threshold generally results in misclassification of the object and the background/shadow. In this paper, an adaptive threshold method is proposed to tackle the problem. Different from the existing automatic methods, the modulation-level histogram, instead of the gray-level histogram, of the image is employed to determine the threshold. Furthermore, a new weighting factor is proposed to improve Otsu's method to segment the image with a histogram close to unimodal, and the modulation difference of the object pixels and the background/shadow pixels is intensified significantly by the weighting factor. Moreover, the weighting factor is adaptive to the image. The proposed method outperforms existing methods either in accuracy, efficiency or automation. Experimental results are given to demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed method.     

制作热敏温度计

利用热敏电阻,电桥,冰水混合物及不同温度的水等物品制作了热敏温度计,本文介绍了制作方法和操作过程。     

Spectrum of OH-stretching vibrations of water in a “floating” water bridge

The axial distribution (over the cross section) of the spectra of the OH-stretching band of water in a water bridge is investigated using the Raman scattering method. It is found that the axial structure of the bridge is inhomogeneous: the core at the center of the bridge contains a larger amount of water with an ??icelike?? structure and a presumably larger number of H⁺ ions, while the outer layer probably consists of water with a larger number of OH^? ions.     

T2 relaxation time histograms in multiple sclerosis

An accurate measurement of the transverse relaxation time T₂, and the histogram of T₂ in the brain parenchyma can be accomplished in vivo using a multi-echo magnetic resonance imaging sequence. An estimate of the error in the T₂ measurement is derived using copper sulfate doped water phantoms. Correction factors are calculated and applied to the signal intensity of each voxel prior to the in vivo T₂ evaluation. These corrected T₂ are in good agreement with the theoretical values calculated from copper sulfate concentrations. This technique is then applied to calculate T₂ histograms of the brain. The population studied was composed of normal volunteers and multiple sclerosis patients. The corrected T₂ histogram method discriminates the normal control population from the MS population, and also discriminates between relapsing-remitting patients and primary progressive or secondary progressive patients. Moreover using this approach we are able to detect in MS patients a global shift of the T₂ of the white mater toward higher values. The results of this study showed that the method is easy to implement and may be used to characterize MS pathology.     

Quantitative susceptibility mapping of prostate with separate calculations for water and fat regions for reducing shading artifacts

We propose a novel processing method for reducing shading artifacts in quantitative susceptibility mapping (QSM) for prostate imaging. In the conventional method, calculation errors in the boundary regions between water and fat cause shading artifacts that degrade the image quality for QSM. In the proposed method, water and fat regions are separated, and susceptibilities in these two regions are calculated separately and then combined. Susceptibility in the water regions is calculated by using the fat regions as a background susceptibility source to remove shading artifacts. Susceptibility in the fat regions is calculated by using the constraint that shading artifacts in the water regions are suppressed to improve accuracy. In quantitative evaluation of the method with a numerical simulation, calculation errors for the water and fat regions were reduced by 62% and 85%, respectively, compared with the conventional method. In visual evaluation using human prostate imaging, the proposed method also reduced the shading artifacts unlike the conventional method. The proposed method is expected to improve the performance of QSM in diagnosing such diseases as prostate cancer.     

Parametric plate-bridge dynamic filter model of violin radiativity

A hybrid, deterministic-statistical, parametric "dynamic filter" model of the violin's radiativity profile [characterized by an averaged-over-sphere, mean-square radiativity (R(ω)(2))] is developed based on the premise that acoustic radiation depends on (1) how strongly it vibrates [characterized by the averaged-over-corpus, mean-square mobility (Y(ω)(2))] and (2) how effectively these vibrations are turned into sound, characterized by the radiation efficiency, which is proportional to (R(ω)(2))/(Y(ω)(2)). Two plate mode frequencies were used to compute 1st corpus bending mode frequencies using empirical trend lines; these corpus bending modes in turn drive cavity volume flows to excite the two lowest cavity modes A0 and A1. All widely-separated, strongly-radiating corpus and cavity modes in the low frequency deterministic region are then parameterized in a dual-Helmholtz resonator model. Mid-high frequency statistical regions are parameterized with the aid of a distributed-excitation statistical mobility function (no bridge) to help extract bridge filter effects associated with (a) bridge rocking mode frequency changes and (b) bridge-corpus interactions from 14-violin-average, excited-via-bridge (Y(ω)(2)) and (R(ω)(2)). Deterministic-statistical regions are rejoined at ~630 Hz in a mobility-radiativity "trough" where all violin quality classes had a common radiativity. Simulations indicate that typical plate tuning has a significantly weaker effect on radiativity profile trends than bridge tuning.     

被动式太赫兹图像分割算法

提出了一种被动式太赫兹图像识别算法。算法对原始太赫兹图像进行去噪预处理之后,通过对灰度直方图分析并对其曲线拟合,选定种子点和生长阈值对图像进行区域生长,以实现图像分割。实验结果证明,算法能够有效地从被动太赫兹图像背景中提取感兴趣的目标区域,有利于快速准确地发现被检测者隐藏在衣服内的违禁品,增强了安检成像系统的实用性。     

几种直方图变换法在输电接头红外热像增强中的对比研究

由红外热像仪直接得到的热像会受很多外来因素的干扰而致使图像模糊不清、对比度差,由此在故障诊断过程中,需要对热像进行后续增强处理。总结了影响热故障红外检测准确性的外部因素,分析了输电接头热像的基本特征,采用了基于平方根灰度变换直方图修正和全局均衡化两种方法对热像进行了增强处理。在分析上述两种方法优劣的基础上,提出了一种基于线性平滑滤波的局部均衡化方法。结果表明,基于线性平滑滤波的局部均衡化方法对于处理输电接头热像更有效。     

基于局部端元光谱表征的地表水体遥感自适应提取

精确的光谱表征是遥感专题地物信息提取的重要前提。针对不同水体光谱之间特征差异性,给水体信息全局光谱表征带来不确定性,提出了基于局部端元光谱表征的各类水体自适应提取方法。首先通过全局光谱指数计算实现水体的初步识别;然后,建立局部专题地物目标区,进行PPI计算提取局部水体端元;第三,通过计算局部区域内水体端元光谱相似度,统计光谱相似度直方图;最后,分析直方图分布特征,选择初始分割阈值,通过逐步迭代自动调整阈值达到最佳阈值选择,实现局部水体单元的自适应高精度提取。通过不同类型湖泊水体提取实验表明,该方法要优于传统的全局水体光谱指数阈值分割法,能够准确、 自动地提取遥感影像上水体分布信息,几乎不受水体光谱特征差异的影响。