Image Pre-Processing

Ashish Khare

Pre-processing is a common name for operations

with images at the lowest level of abstraction -both input and output are intensity images.

The aim of pre-processing is an improvement of

the image data that suppresses unwanted
distortions or enhances some image features
important for further processing.

Four categories of image pre-processing methods

according to the size of the pixel neighborhood
that is used for the calculation of a new pixel
brightness:

pixel brightness transformations,

geometric transformations,
pre-processing methods that use a local
neighborhood of the processed pixel, and
image restoration that requires knowledge about
the entire image.

Other classifications of image pre-processing

methods exist.

Image pre-processing methods use the

considerable redundancy in images.

Neighboring pixels corresponding to one object in

real images have essentially the same or similar
brightness value.

Thus, distorted pixel can often be restored as an

average value of neighboring pixels.

Do you remember the example of filtering

impulse noise?

If pre-processing aims to correct some

degradation in the image, the nature of a priori
information is important:

knowledge about the nature of the degradation;

only very general properties of the degradation are
assumed.

knowledge about the properties of the image

acquisition device, and conditions under which the
image was obtained. The nature of noise (usually
its spectral characteristics) is sometimes known.

knowledge about objects that are searched for in

the image, which may simplify the pre-processing
very considerably.

If knowledge about objects is not

available in advance it can be estimated
during the processing.

Pixel Brightness Transformations

Brightness transformations modify pixel

brightness -- the transformation depends on the
properties of a pixel itself.
Brightness corrections
Gray scale transformations.
Brightness correction

considers original brightness

pixel position in the image.

Gray scale transformations

change brightness without regard to position in the

image.

Position dependent brightness

correction

Ideally, the sensitivity of image acquisition and

digitization devices should not depend on
position in the image, but this assumption is not
valid in many practical cases.

Sources of degradation.

Uneven sensitivity of light sensors

Uneven object illumination

Systematic degradation can be suppressed by

brightness correction.

Let a multiplicative error coefficient e(i,j)

describe the change from the ideal identity
transfer function;

g(i,j) is the original undegraded image (or desired

image)
F(i,j) is the image containing degradation.

If a reference image g(i,j) is known (e.g.,

constant brightness c) then

the degraded result is fc(i,j)

systematic brightness errors can be suppressed:

Image degradation process must be stable,

the device should be calibrated time to time (find

error coefficients e(i,j))

This method implicitly assumes linearity of the

transformation, which is not true in reality as the
brightness scale is limited into some interval.

overflow is possible

the best reference image has brightness that is far

enough from both limits.

If the gray scale has 256 brightnesses the ideal

image has constant brightness value 128.

Most TV cameras have automatic control of the

gain which allows them to operate under
changing illumination conditions. If systematic
errors are suppressed using error coefficients,
this automatic gain control should be switched
off first.

Gray Scale Transformations

Grey scale transformations do not depend on

the position of the pixel in the image.
Brightness transform

a - Negative
transformation
b - contrast
enhancement
(between p1
and p2)
c - Brightness
thresholding

Grey scale transformations can be performed

using look-up tables.

Grey scale transformations are mostly used if

the result is viewed by a human.

Typical grey level transform ... histogram

equalization is usually found automatically

The aim - image with equally distributed

brightness levels over the whole brightness
scale

Geometric Transformations

Geometric transforms permit the elimination of

geometric distortion that occurs when an image
is captured.

An example is an attempt to match remotely

sensed images of the same area taken after one
year, when the more recent image was probably
not taken from precisely the same position.

To inspect changes over the year, it is necessary

first to execute a geometric transformation, and
then subtract one image from the other.

A geometric transform is a vector function T that

maps the pixel (x,y) to a new position (x',y').

The transformation equations are either known in

advance or can be determined from known
original and transformed images.

Several pixels in both images with known

correspondence are used to derive the unknown
transformation.

A geometric transform consists of two basic steps..

1. determining the pixel co-ordinate transform

mapping of the co-ordinates of the input image pixel

to the point in the output image.
the output point co-ordinates should be computed as
continuous values (real numbers) as the position
does not necessarily match the digital grid after the
transform.

2. finding the point in the digital raster which

matches the transformed point and determining its
brightness.
brightness is usually computed as an interpolation
of the brightnesses of several points in the
neighborhood.

Pixel co-ordinate transformations

General case of finding the co-ordinates of a

point in the output image after a geometric
transform.

usually approximated by a polynomial equation

This transform is linear with respect to the

coefficients ark, brk

If pairs of corresponding points (x,y), (x',y') in

both images are known, it is possible to
determine ark, brk by solving a set of linear
equations.

More points than coefficients are usually used to

get robustness.

If the geometric transform does not change

rapidly depending on position in the image, low
order approximating polynomials, m=2 or m=3,
are used, needing at least 6 or 10 pairs of
corresponding points.

The corresponding points should be distributed

in the image in a way that can express the
geometric transformation - usually they are
spread uniformly.

The higher the degree of the approximating

polynomial, the more sensitive to the
distribution of the pairs of corresponding points
the geometric transform.

In practice, the geometric transform is often

approximated by the bilinear transformation

4 pairs of corresponding points are sufficient to

find transformation coefficients

Even simpler is the affine transformation for

which three pairs of corresponding points are
sufficient to find the coefficients

The affine transformation includes typical

geometric transformations such as

rotation, translation, scaling and skewing.

A geometric transform applied to the whole image

may change the co-ordinate system, and a
Jacobean J provides information about how the coordinate system changes

If the transformation is singular (has no inverse)

then J=0. If the area of the image is invariant under
the transformation then J=1.

The Jacobean for the general bilinear trans. (4.11)

The Jacobean for the affine transformation (4.12)

Important geometric transformations

Rotation - by the angle phi about the origin

Change of scale - a in the x axis and b in the y

axis

Skewing by the angle phi

Complex geometric transformations (distortion)

approximation by partitioning an image into

smaller rectangular subimages;
for each subimage, a simple geometric
transformation, such as the affine, is estimated
using pairs of corresponding pixels.
geometric transformation (distortion) is then
performed separately in each subimage.

Typical geometric distortions which have to be

overcome in remote sensing:

distortion of the optical systems

nonlinearities in row by row scanning
nonconstant sampling period.

Brightness interpolation

Assume that the planar transformation has

been accomplished, and new point co-ordinates
(x',y') were obtained.

The position of the point does not in general fit

the discrete raster of the output image.

Values on the integer grid are needed.

Each pixel value in the output image raster can

be obtained by brightness interpolation of
some neighboring noninteger samples.

The brightness interpolation problem is usually

expressed in a dual way (by determining the
brightness of the original point in the input
image that corresponds to the point in the
output image lying on the discrete raster).

Computing the brightness value of the pixel

(x',y') in the output image where x' and y' lie
on the discrete raster

In general the real co-ordinates after inverse

transformation (dashed lines in Figures) do not
fit the input image discrete raster (solid lines),
and so brightness is not known.

To get the brightness value of the point (x,y)

the input image is resampled.

Nearest Neighbor interpolation

assigns to the point (x,y) the brightness value of

the nearest point g in the discrete raster

The right side of Figure shows how the new

brightness is assigned.

Dashed lines show how the inverse planar

transformation maps the raster of the output image
into the input image - full lines show the raster of
the input image.

The position error of the nearest neighborhood

interpolation is at most half a pixel.

This error is perceptible on objects with straight

line boundaries that may appear step-like after
the transformation.

Linear Interpolation

explores four points neighboring the point (x,y),

and assumes that the brightness function is
linear in this neighborhood.

Linear interpolation is given by the equation

Linear interpolation can cause a small decrease

in resolution and blurring due to its averaging
nature.

The problem of step like straight boundaries

with the nearest neighborhood interpolation is
reduced.

Bicubic Interpolation

improves the model of the brightness function by

approximating it locally by a bicubic polynomial
surface; sixteen neighboring points are used for
interpolation.

interpolation kernel (`Mexican hat') is given by

Bicubic interpolation does not suffer from the steplike boundary problem of nearest neighborhood
interpolation, and copes with linear interpolation
blurring as well.

Bicubic interpolation is often used in raster displays

that enable zooming with respect to an arbitrary
point -- if the nearest neighborhood method were
used, areas of the same brightness would increase.

Bicubic interpolation preserves fine details in the

image very well.