Spatial local contrast enhancement of high resolution satellite image using segmentation method

In this study we proposed a new contrast enhancement technique which stretches the local contrast to improve the visibility of satellite images, while preserving its natural looks. The proposed method is based on segmentation of an input image that divided into small individual patches. Linear contrast enhancement is applied for every single patch with the consideration of the gap problem appearing between patches. This problem can be solved by applying the rule of the distance weight measuring from the center of kernel to the nearby patches. The results show that visibility enhancement of specific objects is successfully improved using the proposed method. This achievement fills the recent research gap in enhancing low contrast and its characteristics that could not be enhanced by global contrast enhancement.