ABSTRACT
Image enhancement techniques are employed to emphasize, sharpen, and/or smooth image features for display and analysis. Image enhancement is the process of applying these techniques to facilitate the development of a solution to an imaging problem. Consequently, the enhancement methods are application-specific and are often developed empirically. Figure 8.1-1 illustrates the importance of the application by the feedback loop from the output image back to the start of the enhancement process, and models the experimental nature of the development. In this figure, we define the enhanced image as E(r, c). The range of applications includes using enhancement techniques as preprocessing steps to ease the next processing step or as postprocessing steps to improve the visual perception of a processed image, or image enhancement may be an end in itself.
