Global and Adaptive Contrast Enhancement for Low Illumination Gray Images

Abstract

Aiming at solving the problems of overall darkness, uneven illumination and low contrast of image under low illumination conditions, we present a global and adaptive contrast enhancement algorithm for low illumination gray images in this paper. The proposed algorithm is based on the Bilateral Gamma Adjustment function and combined with the particle swarm optimization (PSO). For the PSO, the gray standard variance is integrated into the evaluation function. To reconcile the dilemma of promoting the gray values of dark areas and suppressing the gray values of local bright areas at the same time, the information of entropy, edge content, and gray standard variance are used as the objective function for each particle to evaluate the gray image enhancement results. Then, the algorithm globally enhances the quality of the image by determining the optimal $\alpha $ value. Meanwhile, the learning factors of the PSO are updated during the iteration of optimization in the proposed algorithm. Compared with histogram equalization (HE), double plateau histogram equalization (DPHE), contrast limited adaptive histogram equalization (CLAHE), linear contrast stretching (LCS), adaptive gamma correction weighting distribution (AGCWD), the traditional PSO and MSF-PSO algorithm, the proposed algorithm significantly enhances the visual effect of the low illumination gray images. The experimental results demonstrate the superior capabilities of the proposed algorithm in enhancing the contrast of the image, such as improving the overall visual effect of the low illumination gray image and avoiding over-enhancement in the local area (s).