Novel contrast enhancement scheme for infrared image using detail-preserving stretching

A novel contrast enhancement scheme for infrared (IR) image using detail-preserving stretching (DPS) is presented in this paper. Unlike CCD images, the histogram of the IR images is not distributed to the entire dynamic range of the input image. Therefore, in order to enhance the contrast, the proposed method adopts contrast stretching since it has a low computational complexity and preserves the global contrast of the original. However, the stretching often produces unpleasant images that do not contain clear details by limiting the output dynamic range. To solve this problem, we propose a new contrast stretching method based on gradient-domain processing (GDP) that can enhance the local image contrast while preserving the global contrast as well as the image details. Experimental results demonstrate that the proposed method outperforms the conventional stretching-based and other image enhancement methods with respect to the visual quality and computational complexity. (C) 2011 Society of Photo-Optical Instrumentation Engineers (SPIE). [DOI: 10.1117/1.3597639]