Illuminant and device invariant colour using histogram equalisation

Finlayson, Graham D., Hordley, Steven D., Schaefer, Gerald and Tian, Gui Yun (2005) Illuminant and device invariant colour using histogram equalisation. Pattern Recognition, 38 (2). pp. 179-190. ISSN 0031-3203

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Abstract

Colour can potentially provide useful information for a variety of computer vision tasks such as image segmentation, image retrieval, object recognition and tracking. However, for it to be helpful in practice, colour must relate directly to the intrinsic properties of the imaged objects and be independent of imaging conditions such as scene illumination and the imaging device. To this end many invariant colour representations have been proposed in the literature. Unfortunately, recent work (Second Workshop on Content-based Multimedia Indexing) has shown that none of them provides good enough practical performance. In this paper we propose a new colour invariant image representation based on an existing grey-scale image enhancement technique: histogram equalisation. We show that provided the rank ordering of sensor responses are preserved across a change in imaging conditions (lighting or device) a histogram equalisation of each channel of a colour image renders it invariant to these conditions. We set out theoretical conditions under which rank ordering of sensor responses is preserved and we present empirical evidence which demonstrates that rank ordering is maintained in practice for a wide range of illuminants and imaging devices. Finally, we apply the method to an image indexing application and show that the method out performs all previous invariant representations, giving close to perfect illumination invariance and very good performance across a change in device.

Item Type:	Article
Faculty \ School:	Faculty of Science > School of Computing Sciences
UEA Research Groups:	Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Interactive Graphics and Audio Faculty of Science > Research Groups > Colour and Imaging Lab
Depositing User:	Vishal Gautam
Date Deposited:	03 Mar 2011 12:36
Last Modified:	22 Apr 2023 01:38
URI:	https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/22806
DOI:	10.1016/j.patcog.2004.04.010

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