Digital Image Processing

(EEE F435/ECE F435)

Lecture 7-9: Introduction to Image Histogram

EEE & ECE Department

BITS-Pilani, Hyderabad campus

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 Learning Objectives

At the end of the lecture the students are expected to

answer the followings:

– What is image histogram

– Histogram equalization

– Histogram specification

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 Image Histograms
• The histogram of an image shows us the
distribution of grey levels in the image
Frequencies

Grey Levels

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 Histogram Examples

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 Histogram Examples (cont…)

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 Histogram Examples (cont…)

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 Histogram Examples (cont…)

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 Exercise
• Draw the transformation function for the
following images:

Input Image Output Image

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 Example
• Consider the following image and obtain its
histogram.
1 2 3 2
3 6 7 6
6 6 6 3
2 6 2 6
6 3 7 1

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 Contrast Stretching
• The images that have poor contrast can be
processed to a high contrast image by applying
some contrast specification

• Now the problem is how to decide this

transformation function?

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 Histogram stretching
• To expand the histogram to increase the
dynamic range

• Shape of the histogram is, however, not

changed

• Also called histogram scaling

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 Histogram stretching
• The mapping is done as:

Smax - Smin
rmax - rmin

• The corresponding transformation is given as:

S max - Smin
T (rk ) = ( rk - rmin ) + S min
rmax - rmin

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 Histogram equalization
• The transformation is of the form: s = T(r)

• Properties of T(r):

– Monotonically (strictly) increasing for r

– Within the maximum range of r

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 Statistical modelling
• Intensity levels are modeled as random
variable within a range
• In order to find a suitable model, the
intensities are considered as continuous and
normalized
• The probability density functions are defined
for the input image as well as the processed
image for the continuous variable r and s

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 CDF as T(r)
• The transformation function is defined as:
rk
sk = T (rk ) = ( L - 1) �pr ( w)dw
0

• The above function is always monotonically

increasing as well as within the range of r
• The above transformation results a uniform
pdf and also independent of the pdf for the
input image

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 Histogram Equalisation

The formula for histogram sk = T (rk )

equalisation is given here as: k
– rk: input intensity = �p (r ) r j
– sk: processed intensity j =0

– k: the intensity range k nj

(e.g 0.0 – 1.0) = �n
– nj: the frequency of intensity j j =0
– n: the sum of all frequencies

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 Example
4 4 4 4 4 6 6 6 6 6

3 4 5 4 3 2 6 7 6 2

3 5 5 5 3 2 7 7 7 2

3 4 5 4 3 2 6 7 6 2

4 4 4 4 4 6 6 6 6 6

Original Image Processed Image

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 Example
• Assume that the pdf for an image is given as:

� 2r 2
� for 0 �r �L-1
pr (r ) = �( L - 1)
� 0,otherwise.
�
Considering r and s to be continuous variables,
show that the histogram equalized image has
a uniform pdf.
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 Example
• A 3-bit image has the following intensity
distribution:

rk 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
nk 12 16 13 11 5 4 2 1

Plot the transformation function and also the

equalized histogram, comment.

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 Histogram Equalization Limitations

• Single step processing

• Non-interactive

• Always provide uniform distribution

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 Histogram Specification
• Let the input image has probability density
pr(r)

• The aim is to find a transformation z = G(z),

such that the probability density of the new
image obtained by this transformation is pz(z),
which is not necessarily uniform

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 Procedure
1. Compute histogram for the input image and find
its histogram equalization transformation T and
find s k

2. Repeat ‘1’ for the target histogram for all values

of z and obtain G
3. For every value of s in T find z s.t. G(z ) is closest
k q q

to s k

4. If more than one value for z is found choose the

q

larger value
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 Example
• Let for an image the followings pdf are
available:
r 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
p (r) 0.19 0.25 0.21 0.16 0.08 0.06 0.03 0.02

• Convert it into an image whose pdf is given as:

z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
p (z) 0 0 0 0.15 0.20 0.30 0.20 0.15

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 Example
• For the following image of size 8×8 with its pdf
given as:
r 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
n(r) 8 10 10 2 12 16 4 2

apply histogram specification technique to

convert it into another image whose pdf given
as:z 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
n(z) 0 0 0 0 20 20 16 8

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