Quality enhancement of infrared images using dynamic fuzzy histogram equalization and high pass adaptation in DWT

Abstract

Recently, Infrared (IR) images have several applications in many fields, especially in the fields of medicine and military. This paper presents an efficient approach for enhancing the contrast, appearance, and quality of IR images. The proposed approach works by applying a brightness preserving dynamic fuzzy Histogram Equalization (BPDFHE) and High Pass Adaptation (HPA) function to the different frequency bands outcome after performing the Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT) on IR image to be enhanced. The coarse approximation LL band is enhanced by employing BPDFHE. The HPA is applied to the horizontal, vertical, and diagonal detail components represented by HL, LH, and HH bands, respectively. The proposed approach is tested and compared with traditional IR enhancement techniques. Experimental tests ensure the superiority and efficiency of the proposed approach in enhancing contrast and sharpening the edges of the low contrast IR images.