Contrast enhacenment of RGB color images by histogram equalization of color vectors' intensities

Abstract

The histogram equalization (HE) is a technique developed for image contrast enhancement of grayscale images. For RGB (Red, Green, Blue) color images, the HE is usually applied in the color channels separately; due to correlation between the color channels, the chromaticity of colors is modified. In order to overcome this problem, the colors of the image are mapped to different color spaces where the chromaticity and the intensity of colors are decoupled; then, the HE is applied in the intensity channel. Mapping colors between different color spaces may involve a huge computational load, because the mathematical operations are not linear. In this paper we present a proposal for contrast enhancement of RGB color images, without mapping the colors to different color spaces, where the HE is applied to the intensities of the color vectors. We show that the images obtained with our proposal are very similar to the images processed in the HSV (Hue, Saturation, Value) and L*a*b* color spaces.