Color Processing

• Introduction
• Color models
• Color image processing

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 Definition of Color
• Physical aspects
– color is a part of magnetic spectrum of visible light.
• Perceptual aspects
– amount made up by varying R, G and B colors.
– cone cells in human eyes detecting color (one for
each R, G and B color)
– R, G, B = primary color

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 Primary and Secondary Colors
• Primary colors: the color consist of 1 primary
color
• Secondary colors: the color consist of 2
primary colors

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Primary and Secondary Colors (2)

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 Color Model
• A.k.a. color space, color system
• Specify a color as a point in some standard
coordinate
• Popular color models:
– RGB color models
– HSV color models
– YIQ color models (NTSC standard)
– LUV and LAB color models
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 RGB Color Model
• Cartesian coordinate system
• Stand for RED, GREEN and BLUE color

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 Pixel Depth
• Pixel depth: #bit represented RGB image
– E.g. 24-bit RGB color image: 8-bit for each color.
Able to represent (28)3 color
• Full-color image = 24-bit RGB color image

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R.C. Gonzalez and R.E. Woods, “Digital Image Processing”, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, 2002.
 Safe RGB Colors
• A.k.a all-system-safe colors, safe Web colors,
safe browser color
• Set of the color that are likely to be reproduced
color independent of the hardware
• Set of 216 colors (the other 40 are reproduced
differently by various OS)
• Value for RGB: 0, 51, 102, 153, 204, 255
• Show in Hex format RRGGBB
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 Safe Color Diagram and Cube

Color only on the surface of the cube

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R.C. Gonzalez and R.E. Woods, “Digital Image Processing”, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, 2002.
 HSV Color Model
• Hue: true color attribute
• Saturation: amount that the color is diluted by
white
– pure red Æ high saturation
– light red Æ low saturation
• Value: degree of brightness

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HSV Color Space

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:HSV_cone.png
 HSV ↔ RGB
V = max{R, G, B} H ′ = ⎣6 H ⎦
δ = V − min{R, G, B} F = 6H − H ′
P = V (1 − S )
δ
S= Q = V (1 − SF )
V
T = V (1 − S (1 − F ))
1 G−B
IF R = V THEN H = H’ R G B
6 δ 0 V T P
1⎛ B−R⎞ 1 Q V P
IF G = V THEN H = ⎜ 2 + ⎟
6⎝ δ ⎠ 2 P V T
1⎛ R −G ⎞ 3 P Q V
IF B = V THEN H = ⎜ 4 + ⎟ 4 T P V
6⎝ δ ⎠
5 V P Q
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All values are normalized.
 HSV: MATLAB Command

• RGB Æ HSV
– MATLAB: rgb2hsv(Red, Green, Blue);
• HSVÆRGB
– MATLAB: hsv2rgb(Hue, Saturation, Value);

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RGB Image VS HSV Image
RGB Image

Hue Image

Saturation Image
(white : low)

Value Image

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HSV color space

 YIQ Color Space
• Y : luminance, brightness
• I, Q: chrominance (color information)

⎡Y ⎤ ⎡0.299 0.587 0.114 ⎤ ⎡ R ⎤

⎢ I ⎥ = ⎢0.596 − 0.274 − 0.322⎥⎥ ⎢⎢G ⎥⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢
⎢⎣Q ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ 0.211 − 0.523 0.312 ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣ B ⎥⎦
⎡ R ⎤ ⎡1.000 0.956 0.621 ⎤ ⎡Y ⎤
⎢G ⎥ = ⎢1.000 − 0.272 − 0.647 ⎥⎥ ⎢⎢ I ⎥⎥
⎢ ⎥ ⎢
⎢⎣ B ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣1.000 − 1.106 1.703 ⎥⎦ ⎢⎣Q ⎥⎦
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 YIQ: MATLAB Command
• RGB Æ YIQ
– MATLAB: rgb2ntsc(Red, Green, Blue);
• YIQÆRGB
– MATLAB: ntsc2rgb(Y, I, Q);

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RGB Image VS YIQ Image
RGB Image

Y Image

I Image

Q Image

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YIQ
 MATLAB Structure
• 3-dimensional matrix:
– [row, column, color space]
• RGB(HSV, YIQ):
– red (hue, Y) components: [.., .., 1]
– green (saturation, I) components: [.., .., 2]
– blue (value, Q) components: [.., .., 3]

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 Contrast Enhancement
• Use histogram manipulation (E.g. histogram
equalization) on only intensity component.
• Processing on RGB matrix leads to color
distortion.

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Histogram Equalization on RGB

BEFORE AFTER

http://documents.wolfram.com/applications/digitalimage/UsersGuide/3.4.html

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 Spatial Filtering
• Blurring: any are fine
– average filter on RGB components
– average filter on intensity(Y) components
• High-pass filter (E.g. unsharp)
– process on intensity components
• General: work on intensity components

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 Smoothed Lena

Blame the reddish tone on the scanner!!!

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R.C. Gonzalez and R.E. Woods, “Digital Image Processing”, 2nd Ed., Prentice Hall, 2002.
 Noise Reduction
• Depended on where noise is generated.
– generated in RGB spaces: reduce noise in RGB
matrix
– generated in brightness space: reduce noise in
intensity (Y) components

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 Edge Detection
• Use edge detection on intensity component
only
• Use edge detection on R, G and B components
separately and join the result

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