A Second-Order Image Denoising Model for Contrast Preservation

In this work,we propose a second-order model for image denoising by employing a novel potential function recently developed in Zhu(J Sci Comput 88:46,2021)for the design of a regularization term.Due to this new second-order derivative based regularizer,the model is able to alleviate the staircase effect and preserve image contrast.The augmented Lagrangian method(ALM)is utilized to minimize the associated functional and convergence analysis is established for the proposed algorithm.Numerical experiments are presented to demonstrate the features of the proposed model.

Detection of broken manhole cover using improved Hough and image contrast

The damage or loss of urban road manhole covers may cause great risk to residents＇ lives and property if they cannot be discovered in time. Most existing research recommendations for solving this problem are difficult to implement. This paper proposes an algorithm that combines the improved Hough transform and image comparison to identify the damage or loss of the manhole covers in complicated surface conditions by using existing urban road video images. Focusing on the pre-processed images, the edge contour tracking algorithm is applied to find all of the edges. Then with the improved Hough transformation, color recognition and image matching algorithm, the manhole cover area is found and the change rates of the manhole cover area are calculated. Based on the threshold of the change rates, it can be determined whether there is potential damage or loss in the manhole cover. Compared with the traditional Hough transform, the proposed method can effectively improve the processing speed and reduce invalid sampling and accumulation. Experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm has the functions of effective positioning and early warning in the conditions of complex background, different perspectives, and different videoing time and conditions, such as when the target is partially covered.

A Local Contrast Fusion Based 3D Otsu Algorithm for Multilevel Image Segmentation

To overcome the shortcomings of 1 D and 2 D Otsu’s thresholding techniques, the 3 D Otsu method has been developed.Among all Otsu’s methods, 3 D Otsu technique provides the best threshold values for the multi-level thresholding processes. In this paper, to improve the quality of segmented images, a simple and effective multilevel thresholding method is introduced. The proposed approach focuses on preserving edge detail by computing the 3 D Otsu along the fusion phenomena. The advantages of the presented scheme include higher quality outcomes, better preservation of tiny details and boundaries and reduced execution time with rising threshold levels. The fusion approach depends upon the differences between pixel intensity values within a small local space of an image;it aims to improve localized information after the thresholding process. The fusion of images based on local contrast can improve image segmentation performance by minimizing the loss of local contrast, loss of details and gray-level distributions. Results show that the proposed method yields more promising segmentation results when compared to conventional1 D Otsu, 2 D Otsu and 3 D Otsu methods, as evident from the objective and subjective evaluations.

Value of MR contrast media in image-guided body interventions

In the past few years,there have been multiple advances in magnetic resonance (MR) instrumentation,in vivo devices,real-time imaging sequences and interventional procedures with new therapies.More recently,interventionists have started to use minimally invasive image-guided procedures and local therapies,which reduce the pain from conventional surgery and increase drug effectiveness,respectively.Local therapy also reduces the systemic dose and eliminates the toxic side effects of some drugs to other organs.The success of MR-guided procedures depends on visualization of the targets in 3D and precise deployment of ablation catheters,local therapies and devices.MR contrast media provide a wealth of tissue contrast and allows 3D and 4D image acquisitions.After the development of fast imaging sequences,the clinical applications of MR contrast media have been substantially expanded to include pre-during-and post-interventions.Prior to intervention,MR contrast media have the potential to localize and delineate pathologic tissues of vital organs,such as the brain,heart,breast,kidney,prostate,liver and uterus.They also offer other options such as labeling therapeutic agents or cells.During intervention,these agents have the capability to map blood vessels and enhance the contrast between the endovascular guidewire/catheters/devices,blood and tissues as well as direct therapies to the target.Furthermore,labeling therapeutic agents or cells aids in visualizing their delivery sites and tracking their tissue distribution.After intervention,MR contrast media have been used for assessing the efficacy of ablation and therapies.It should be noted that most image-guided procedures are under preclinical research and development.It can be concluded that MR contrast media have great value in preclinical and some clinical interventional procedures.Future applications of MR contrast media in image-guided procedures depend on their safety,tolerability,tissue specificity and effectiveness in demonstrating success of the interventions and therapies.

Research on Wavelet-Based Algorithm for Image Contrast Enhancement

A novel wavelet-based algorithm for image enhancement is proposed in the paper. On the basis of multiscale analysis, the proposed algorithm solves efficiently the problem of noise over-enhancement, which commonly occurs in the traditional methods for contrast enhancement. The decomposed coefficients at same scales are processed by a nonlinear method, and the coefficients at different scales are enhanced in different degree. During the procedure, the method takes full advantage of the properties of Human visual system so as to achieve better performance. The simulations demonstrate that these characters of the proposed approach enable it to fully enhance the content in images, to efficiently alleviate the enhancement of noise and to achieve much better enhancement effect than the traditional approaches. Key words wavelet transform - image contrast enhancement - multiscale analysis CLC number TP 391 Foundation item: Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (69931010)Biography: Wu Ying-qian (1974-), male, Ph. D, research direction: image processing, image compression and wavelet.

Robust and Discriminative Feature Learning via Mutual Information Maximization for Object Detection in Aerial Images

Object detection in unmanned aerial vehicle(UAV)aerial images has become increasingly important in military and civil applications.General object detection models are not robust enough against interclass similarity and intraclass variability of small objects,and UAV-specific nuisances such as uncontrolledweather conditions.Unlike previous approaches focusing on high-level semantic information,we report the importance of underlying features to improve detection accuracy and robustness fromthe information-theoretic perspective.Specifically,we propose a robust and discriminative feature learning approach through mutual information maximization(RD-MIM),which can be integrated into numerous object detection methods for aerial images.Firstly,we present the rank sample mining method to reduce underlying feature differences between the natural image domain and the aerial image domain.Then,we design a momentum contrast learning strategy to make object features similar to the same category and dissimilar to different categories.Finally,we construct a transformer-based global attention mechanism to boost object location semantics by leveraging the high interrelation of different receptive fields.We conduct extensive experiments on the VisDrone and Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Benchmark Object Detection and Tracking(UAVDT)datasets to prove the effectiveness of the proposed method.The experimental results show that our approach brings considerable robustness gains to basic detectors and advanced detection methods,achieving relative growth rates of 51.0%and 39.4%in corruption robustness,respectively.Our code is available at https://github.com/cq100/RD-MIM(accessed on 2 August 2024).

Effect of Direct Statistical Contrast Enhancement Technique on Document Image Binarization

Background:Contrast enhancement plays an important role in the image processing field.Contrast correction has performed an adjustment on the darkness or brightness of the input image and increases the quality of the image.Objective:This paper proposed a novel method based on statistical data from the local mean and local standard deviation.Method:The proposed method modifies the mean and standard deviation of a neighbourhood at each pixel and divides it into three categories:background,foreground,and problematic(contrast&luminosity)region.Experimental results from both visual and objective aspects show that the proposed method can normalize the contrast variation problem effectively compared to Histogram Equalization(HE),Difference of Gaussian(DoG),and Butterworth Homomorphic Filtering(BHF).Seven(7)types of binarization methods were tested on the corrected image and produced a positive and impressive result.Result:Finally,a comparison in terms of Signal Noise Ratio(SNR),Misclassification Error(ME),F-measure,Peak Signal Noise Ratio(PSNR),Misclassification Penalty Metric(MPM),and Accuracy was calculated.Each binarization method shows an incremented result after applying it onto the corrected image compared to the original image.The SNR result of our proposed image is 9.350 higher than the three(3)other methods.The average increment after five(5)types of evaluation are:(Otsu=41.64%,Local Adaptive=7.05%,Niblack=30.28%,Bernsen=25%,Bradley=3.54%,Nick=1.59%,Gradient-Based=14.6%).Conclusion:The results presented in this paper effectively solve the contrast problem and finally produce better quality images.

Research on Improved MobileViT Image Tamper Localization Model

As image manipulation technology advances rapidly,the malicious use of image tampering has alarmingly escalated,posing a significant threat to social stability.In the realm of image tampering localization,accurately localizing limited samples,multiple types,and various sizes of regions remains a multitude of challenges.These issues impede the model’s universality and generalization capability and detrimentally affect its performance.To tackle these issues,we propose FL-MobileViT-an improved MobileViT model devised for image tampering localization.Our proposed model utilizes a dual-stream architecture that independently processes the RGB and noise domain,and captures richer traces of tampering through dual-stream integration.Meanwhile,the model incorporating the Focused Linear Attention mechanism within the lightweight network(MobileViT).This substitution significantly diminishes computational complexity and resolves homogeneity problems associated with traditional Transformer attention mechanisms,enhancing feature extraction diversity and improving the model’s localization performance.To comprehensively fuse the generated results from both feature extractors,we introduce the ASPP architecture for multi-scale feature fusion.This facilitates a more precise localization of tampered regions of various sizes.Furthermore,to bolster the model’s generalization ability,we adopt a contrastive learning method and devise a joint optimization training strategy that leverages fused features and captures the disparities in feature distribution in tampered images.This strategy enables the learning of contrastive loss at various stages of the feature extractor and employs it as an additional constraint condition in conjunction with cross-entropy loss.As a result,overfitting issues are effectively alleviated,and the differentiation between tampered and untampered regions is enhanced.Experimental evaluations on five benchmark datasets(IMD-20,CASIA,NIST-16,Columbia and Coverage)validate the effectiveness of our proposed model.The meticulously calibrated FL-MobileViT model consistently outperforms numerous existing general models regarding localization accuracy across diverse datasets,demonstrating superior adaptability.

Optical design of a novel near-infrared phase contrast imaging(NI-PCI)diagnostic on the HL-2A tokamak

The optical design of near-infrared phase contrast imaging(NI-PCI)diagnosis on HL-2A is introduced in this paper.This scheme benefits from the great progress of near-infrared laser technology and is a broadening of traditional phase contrast technology.This diagnostic can work as a keen tool to measure plasma wavenumber spectra by inferring string-integrated plasma density fluctuations.Design of both the front optical path which is the path before the laser transmitting into the tokamak plasma and the rear optics which is the path after the laser passing through the plasma is detailed.The 1550 nm laser is chosen as the probe beam and highprecision optical components are designed to fit the laser beam,in which a phase plate with a 194-nm-deep silver groove is the key.Compared with the conventional 10.6μm laser-based PCI system on HL-2A,NI-PCI significantly overcomes the unwanted phase scintillation effect and promotes the measurement capability of high-wavenumber turbulence with an increased maximal measurable wavenumber from 15 cm^(-1)to 32.6 cm^(-1).

Laser speckle contrast imaging to predict the effect of temporary spinal cord stimulation in postherpetic neuralgia patients: A prospective observational study

Temporary spinal cord stimulation(tSCS)can effectively reduce the pain and severity of postherpetic neuralgia(PHN).However,there are no effective and objective methods for predicting the effects of tSCS on PHN.Laser speckle contrast imaging(LSCI)is frequently used in neurology to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment.To assess the accuracy of LSCI in predicting the impact of tSCS on PHN,14 adult patients receiving tSCS treatments for spinal nerve-innervated(C6-T2)PHN participated in this observational study.Visual analog scale(VAS)assessments and LSCI bloodflow images of the-ngers were recorded after the tSCS procedure.The results showed that the VAS scores of all patients decreased signi-cantly.Moreover,the bloodflow index(BFI)values were signi-cantly higher than they were before the procedure.Increased bloodflow and pain alleviation were positively correlated.The-ndings indicated that spinal nerve PHN(C6-T2)was signi-cantly reduced by tSCS.Pain alleviation by tSCS was positively correlated with increased bloodflow in the hand.The effect of tSCS on PHN may thus be predicted using an independent and consistent indicator such as LSCI.

Enhancement Technique of Image Contrast using New Histogram Transformation

This paper presents a preprocessing technique that can provide the improved quality of image robust to illumination changes. First, in order to enhance the image contrast, we proposed new adaptive histogram transformation combining histogram equalization and histogram specification. Here, by examining the characteristic of histogram distribution shape, we determine the appropriate target distribution. Next, applying the histogram equalization with an image histogram, we have obtained the uniform distribution of pixel values, and then we have again carried out the histogram transformation using an inverse of target distribution function. Finally we have conducted various experiments that can enhance the quality of image by applying our method with various standard images. The experimental results show that the proposed method can achieve moderately good image enhancement results.

Statistical Histogram Decision Based Contrast Categorization of Skin Lesion Datasets Dermoscopic Images

Most of the melanoma cases of skin cancer are the life-threatening form of cancer.It is prevalent among the Caucasian group of people due to their light skin tone.Melanoma is the second most common cancer that hits the age group of 15–29 years.The high number of cases has increased the importance of automated systems for diagnosing.The diagnosis should be fast and accurate for the early treatment of melanoma.It should remove the need for biopsies and provide stable diagnostic results.Automation requires large quantities of images.Skin lesion datasets contain various kinds of dermoscopic images for the detection of melanoma.Three publicly available benchmark skin lesion datasets,ISIC 2017,ISBI 2016,and PH2,are used for the experiments.Currently,the ISIC archive and PH2 are the most challenging and demanding dermoscopic datasets.These datasets’pre-analysis is necessary to overcome contrast variations,under or over segmented images boundary extraction,and accurate skin lesion classification.In this paper,we proposed the statistical histogram-based method for the pre-categorization of skin lesion datasets.The image histogram properties are utilized to check the image contrast variations and categorized these images into high and low contrast images.The two performance measures,processing time and efficiency,are computed for evaluation of the proposed method.Our results showed that the proposed methodology improves the pre-processing efficiency of 77%of ISIC 2017,67%of ISBI 2016,and 92.5%of PH2 datasets.

Near-Infrared Fluorescence Imaging Contrast Agents for Clinical Research: Limitations and Alternatives

Introduction: Near-infrared fluorescence imaging is a technique that will establish itself in the short term at the international level because it is recognized for its potential to improve the performance of surgical interventions, its moderate investment and operating costs and its portability. Although the technology is now mature, there is currently the problem of the availability of contrast agents to be injected IV. The aim of this methodology article is to propose an alternative solution to the need for contrast agents for clinical research, particularly in oncology. Methodology: They consist of coupling a fluorescent marker in the form of an NHS derivative, such as IR DYE manufactured in compliance with GMP, with therapeutic monoclonal antibodies having marketing authorization for molecular imaging. For a given antibody, the marking procedure must be the subject of a validation file on the final preparation filtered on a sterilizing membrane at 0.22 μm. Once the procedure has been validated, it would be unnecessary to repeat the tests before each clinical research examination. A check of the marking by thin-layer chromatography (TLC) and place it in a sample bank at +4˚C for 1 month of each injected formulation would be sufficient for additional tests if necessary. Conclusion: Molecular near-infrared fluorescence imaging is experiencing development, the process of which could be accelerated by greater availability of clinical contrast agents. Alternative solutions are therefore necessary to promote clinical research in this area. These methods must be shared to make it easier for researchers.

Is it a normal phenomenon for pediatric patients to have brain leptomeningeal contrast enhancement on 3-tesla magnetic resonance imaging?

Determining whether sevoflurane sedation in children leads to“pseudo”prominent leptomeningeal contrast enhancement(pLMCE)on 3 Tesla magnetic resonance imaging will help reduce overdiagnosis by radiologists and clarify the pathophysiological changes of pLMCE.

Perceptual Contrast-Based Image Fusion: A Variational Approach

本地对比，或变化，在主要是从来源图象保存重要信息到熔化结果的图象熔化起一个重要作用。威伯的法律告诉我们在不同背景下面的一样的变化将引起不同感性的感情，因此，一个理想的图象处理器不得不考虑视觉心理学和心物学的效果。这份报纸考虑人的视觉系统(HVS ) 的性质并且从每幅来源图象把量的感性的变化转移到结果。把 just-noticeable-difference (JND ) 用作测量， multiband 图象的感性的对比作为一个目标被获得。我们构造一个功能的极值问题发现一幅单身的乐队图象，或熔化结果，它有最近感性的对比到目标一个。经由变化途径， Euler-Lagrange 方程被导出，并且一次坡度降下重复被采用。试验性的结果证明这个方法感性地好。

A Post-Processing Algorithm for Boosting Contrast of MRI Images

Low contrast of Magnetic Resonance(MR)images limits the visibility of subtle structures and adversely affects the outcome of both subjective and automated diagnosis.State-of-the-art contrast boosting techniques intolerably alter inherent features of MR images.Drastic changes in brightness features,induced by post-processing are not appreciated in medical imaging as the grey level values have certain diagnostic meanings.To overcome these issues this paper proposes an algorithm that enhance the contrast of MR images while preserving the underlying features as well.This method termed as Power-law and Logarithmic Modification-based Histogram Equalization(PLMHE)partitions the histogram of the image into two sub histograms after a power-law transformation and a log compression.After a modification intended for improving the dispersion of the sub-histograms and subsequent normalization,cumulative histograms are computed.Enhanced grey level values are computed from the resultant cumulative histograms.The performance of the PLMHE algorithm is comparedwith traditional histogram equalization based algorithms and it has been observed from the results that PLMHE can boost the image contrast without causing dynamic range compression,a significant change in mean brightness,and contrast-overshoot.

Contrast Correction Using Hybrid Statistical Enhancement on Weld Defect Images

Luminosity and contrast variation problems are among the most challenging tasks in the image processing field,significantly improving image quality.Enhancement is implemented by adjusting the dark or bright intensity to improve the quality of the images and increase the segmentation performance.Recently,numerous methods had been proposed to normalise the luminosity and contrast variation.A new approach based on a direct technique using statistical data known as Hybrid Statistical Enhancement(HSE)is presented in this study.TheHSE method uses themean and standard deviation of a local and global neighbourhood and classified the pixel into three groups;the foreground,border,and problematic region(contrast&luminosity).The datasets,namely weld defect images,were utilised to demonstrate the effectiveness of the HSE method.The results from the visual and objective aspects showed that the HSE method could normalise the luminosity and enhance the contrast variation problem effectively.The proposed method was compared to the two(2)populor enhancement methods which is Homomorphic Filter(HF)and Difference of Gaussian(DoG).To prove the HSE effectiveness,a few image quality assessments were presented,and the results were discussed.The HSE method achieved a better result compared to the other methods,which are Signal Noise Ratio(8.920),Standard Deviation(18.588)and Absolute Mean Brightness Error(9.356).In conclusion,implementing the HSE method has produced an effective and efficient result for background correction and quality images improvement.

Similarity Measures of Satellite Images Using an Adaptive Feature Contrast Model

Similarity measurement is one of key operations to retrieve “desired” images from an image database. As a famous psychological similarity measure approach, the Feature Contrast (FC) model is defined as a linear combination of both common and distinct features. In this paper, an adaptive feature contrast (AdaFC) model is proposed to measure similarity between satellite images for image retrieval. In the AdaFC, an adaptive function is used to model a variable role of distinct features in the similarity measurement. Specifically, given some distinct features in a satellite image, e.g., a COAST image, they might play a significant role when the image is compared with an image including different semantics, e.g., a SEA image, and might be trivial when it is compared with a third image including same semantics, e.g., another COAST image. Experimental results on satellite images show that the proposed model can consistently improve similarity retrieval effectiveness of satellite images including multiple geo-objects, for example COAST images.

Enhanced Contrast of Reconstructed Image for Image Secret Sharing Scheme Using Mathematical Morphology

Visual secret sharing (VSS) is one of the cryptographic techniques of Image secret sharing scheme (ISSS) that performs encoding of secret message image (text or picture) into noise like black and white images, which are called as shares. Shares are stacked together and secret message image is decoded using human visual system. One of the major drawbacks of this scheme is its poor contrast of the recovered image, which improves if computational device is available while decoding. In this paper, we propose to improve poor contrast of classical VSS schemes for text or alphanumeric secret messages and low entropy images. Initially, stacked image is binarized using dynamic threshold value. A mathematical morphological operation is applied on the stacked image to enhance contrast of the reconstructed image. Moreover, a method is proposed that allows the size of the structuring element to change according to the contrast and the size of a stacked image. We perform experiments for different types of VSS schemes, different share patterns, different share types (rectangle and circle), and low entropy images. Experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed scheme.

Reversible Data Hiding with Contrast Enhancement Using Bi-histogram Shifting and Image Adjustment for Color Images

Prior versions of reversible data hiding with contrast enhancement(RDHCE)algorithms strongly focused on enhancing the contrast of grayscale images.However,RDHCE has recently witnessed a rise in contrast enhance-ment algorithms concentrating on color images.This paper implies a method for color images that uses the RGB(red,green,and blue)color model and is based on bi-histogram shifting and image adjustment.Bi-histogram shifting is used to embed data and image adjustment to achieve contrast enhancement by adjusting the images resulting from each channel of the color images before combining them to generate the final enhanced image.Images are first divided into three channels-R,G,and B-and the Max,Med,and Min channels are then determined from these.Before histogram shifting,some calculations are done to determine how many iterations there will be for each channel.The images are adjusted to improve visual quality in the enhanced images after data has been embedded in each channel.The experimental results show that the enhanced images produced by the proposed method are qualitatively and aesthetically superior to those produced by some earlier methods,and their quality was assessed using PSNR,SSIM,RCE,RMBE,and CIEDE2000.The embedding rate obtained by the suggested method is acceptable.