title: Gray and color image contrast enhancement by the curvelet transform.
abstract: We present in this paper a new method for contrast enhancement based on the curvelet transform. The curvelet transform represents edges better than wavelets, and is therefore well-suited for multiscale edge enhancement. We compare this approach with enhancement based on the wavelet transform, and the Multiscale Retinex. In a range of examples, we use edge detection and segmentation, among other processing applications, to provide for quantitative comparative evaluation. Our findings are that curvelet based enhancement out-performs other enhancement methods on noisy images, but on noiseless or near noiseless images curvelet based enhancement is not remarkably better than wavelet based enhancement.
authors.affiliation: Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique-Saclay, Gif sur Yvette, France. jstarck@cea.fr
authors.forename: Jean-Luc
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Starck
authors.forename: Fionn
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Murtagh
authors.forename: Emmanuel J
authors.initials: EJ
authors.lastname: Candès
authors.forename: David L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Donoho