Automatic histogram-based contrast enhancement for low-contrast images with small-sized objects

The problem of image enhancement for low-contrast images with the small-size objects is considered. The histogram-based method for contrast enhancement of low-contrast images with the small-size objects on the basis of the estimation of parameters of contrast distribution at boundaries of image elements for the various definitions of contrast kernels is proposed. The proposed method is intended for the automatic preprocessing of low-contrast images with complex structure. The researches of the effectiveness for the proposed and the well-known histogram-based methods were conducted using the known no-reference contrast metrics.