Fast histogram equalization for medical image enhancement

To overcome the problem that the histogram equalization can fail for discrete images, a local-mean based strict pixel ordering method has been proposed recently, although it is unpractical for 3D medical image enhancement due to its complex computation. In this paper, a novel histogram mapping method is proposed. It uses a fast local feature generation technique to establish a combined histogram that represents voxels' local means as well as grey levels. Different sections of the combined histogram, separated by individual peaks, are independently mapped into the target histogram scale under the constraint that the final overall histogram should be as uniform as possible. By using this method, the speed of histogram equalization is dramatically improved, and the satisfactory enhancement results are also achieved.