Digital Image Processing

Color Image Processing

Thanh-Hai Tran

Telecommunications Engineering Faculty

School of Electronics and Electrical Engineering
Hanoi University of Science and Technology
1 Dai Co Viet - Hanoi - Vietnam
 Outline
n Color fundamentals
n Color models: RGB, CMY, HIS, Lab
n Basics of Full-Color Image Processing
n Color transformations
n Smoothing and sharpening
n Image segmentation based on color
n Noise in Color images
n References
2020 2
 Introduction

n Why color ?
u color is a powerful descriptor that often simplifies object
identification and extraction from a scene
u humans can discern thousands of color shades and
intensities, compared to about only two dozen shades of
gray
n Color image processing
u Full-color processing: the images in question typically are
acquired with a full-color sensor
u Pseudo-color processing: assigning a color to a partic- ular
monochrome intensity or range of intensities

2020 3
 Color fundamentals

2020 4
 Color fundamentals

n Basically, the colors that humans and some other animals

perceive in an object are determined by the nature of the
light reflected from the object
n Visible light is composed of a relatively narrow band of
frequencies in the electromagnetic spectrum
n Characterization of light is central to the science of color
u If the light is achromatic (void of color), its only attribute is its
intensity, or amount
u Chromatic light spans the electromagnetic spectrum from
approximately 400 to 700 nm
u Three basic quantities are used to describe the quality of a
chromatic light source: radiance, luminance, and brightness

2020 5
 n Radiance is the total amount of energy that flows from the
light source, and it is usually measured in watts (W)
n Luminance, measured in lumens (lm), gives a measure of
the amount of energy an observer perceives from a light
source
n Brightness is a subjective descriptor that is practically
impossible to measure

2020 6
 n Cones are the sensors in the eye responsible for color
vision
n The 6 to 7 million cones in the human eye can be divided
into three principal sensing categories, corresponding
roughly to red, green, and blue
u 65% of cones are sensitive to red light
u 33% of cones are sensitive to green light
u Only 2% of cones are sensitive to blue light

2020 7
 Color fundamentals

Absorption of light by the red, green, and blue cones in the human eye as a
2020
function of wavelength
 Primary colors

n Due to absoption charactersitics of the human eye, colors

are seen as variable combination of primary colors (Red,
Green and Blue)
n For the purpose of standardization, the CIE (Commission
Internationale de l’Eclairage—the International Commis-
sion on Illumination) designated in 1931 the following
specific wavelength values to the three primary colors:
blue = 435.8 nm, green = 546.1 nm, and red = 700 nm.

2020 9
 Secondary colors

n The primary colors can be added to produce the

secondary colors of light— magenta (red plus blue), cyan
(green plus blue), and yellow (red plus green)

2020 10
 Characteristics of color

n The characteristics generally used to distinguish one

color from another are brightness, hue, and
saturation.
u Brightness: brightness embodies the achromatic notion of
intensity
u Hue: an attribute associated with the dominant wavelength
in a mixture of light waves
u Saturation: refers to the relative purity or the amount of
white light mixed with a hue
n Hue and saturation taken together are called
chromaticity, and, therefore, a color may be
characterized by its brightness and chromaticity

2020 11
 Chromaticity diagram

n The amounts of red, green, and blue needed to form any

particular color are called the tristimulus values and are
denoted, X, Y, and Z, respectively

n Chromaticity diagram (CIE)

n The positions of the various spectrum colors—from violet
at 380 nm to red at 780 nm—are indicated around the
boundary of the tongue-shaped chromaticity diagram
2020 12
 Extension to three colors

n To determine the range of colors that can be obtained

from any three given colors in the chromaticity diagram,
we simply draw connecting lines to each of the three color
points
n The result is a triangle, and any color on the boundary or
inside the triangle can be produced by various
combinations of the three initial colors
n The triangle shows a typical range of colors (called the
color gamut) produced by RGB monitors.
n The irregular region inside the triangle is representative of
the color gamut of today’s high-quality color printing
devices

2020 13
 Extension to three colors

Typical color gamut of color monitors (triangle) and color

printing devices (irregular region).
2020
 Color models

n Color model (color space, color system)

n Purpose: facilitate the specification of colors in some
standards
n A color model is a specification of a coordinate system
n A subspace within that system where each color is
represented by a single point
n Most color models in use today are oriented either
u toward hardware (such as for color monitors and printers)
« RGB for color monitors
« CMY for printing
« HIS for-interpreting color
u toward applications where color manipulation is a goal (such
as in the creation of color graphics for animation)
2020 15
 The RGB color model

n Each color appears in its

primary spectral
components of red,
green, and blue
n This model is based on a
Cartesian coordinate
system

Schematic of the RGB color cube.

Points along the main diagonal
have gray values, from black at
the origin to white at point (1, 1, 1)

2020
composed of the (2 ) = 16,777,216
8 3 16
 The RGB color model

(a) Generating the RGB image of the cross-

sectional color plane (127, G, B).
(b) The three hidden surface planes in the
color cube

2020
 The RGB color model

n many systems in use today are limited to 256 colors

n it is of considerable interest to have a subset of colors that
are likely to be reproduced faithfully, reasonably
independently of viewer hardware capabilities
n This subset of colors is called the set of safe RGB colors

2020 18
 216 safe colors and all grays in 256 colors

2020
 The CMY & CMYK color models

n Cyan, Magenta, and Yellow are the secondary colors of

light
n Most devices that deposit colored pigments on paper,
such as color printers and copiers, require CMY data input
or perform an RGB to CMY conversion internally
n Assume that all color values have been normalized to the
range [0, 1]

2020 20
 The HSI color model

n RGB and CMY are color systems ideally suited for

hardware implementations
n RGB system matches nicely with the fact that the human
eye is strongly perceptive to red, green, and blue
primaries
n Unfortunately, the RGB, CMY, and other similar color
models are not well suited for describing colors in terms
that are practical for human interpretation
n When humans view a color object, we describe it by its
hue, saturation, and brightness.
n HSI model is an ideal tool for developing image
processing algorithms based on color descriptions
n HSI is natural and intuitive to humans, who, after all, are
the developers and users of these algorithm 21
2020
 The HSI color model

n The relationship between RGB and HSI

2020 22
 The HSI color model

2020
 The HSI color model

2020
 Converting colors from RGB to HSI

2020 25
 Converting colors from HSI to RGB

n RG sector (0° <= H <= 120°) n BR sector (240° <= H <= 3

n GB sector (120° <= H <= 240°)

2020 26
 Pseudocolor Image Processing

n PIP = assigning colors to gray values based on a specified

criterion
n Intensity Slicing:

2020 27
 Pseudocolor Image Processing

(a) Monochrome image of the Picker Thyroid Phantom. (b)

Result of density slicing into eight colors.

2020
 Pseudocolor Image Processing
(a) Gray-scale image in
which intensity (in the
lighter horizontal band
shown) corresponds to
average monthly rainfall. (b)
Colors assigned to intensity
values. (c) Color-coded
image. (d) Zoom of the
South American region

2020
 Intensity to Color transformation

n Functional block diagram for pseudocolor image

processing. fR, fG, and fB are fed into the corresponding
red, green, and blue inputs of an RGB color monitor.

30
2020
 n Use of pseudocolor for highlighting explosives
contained in luggage.

2020 31
 References

n Chapter 6 – Digital Image Processing

2020 32