Gamut-adaptive correction in color image processing

In color image processing, an image is usually processed in a color space consisting of luminance and chrominance components. The processed result is then converted to the RGB color space for display. However, a straightforward color space conversion can cause color distortion due to gamut difference between the two color spaces. In order to alleviate this gamut problem, we propose two gamut-adaptive correction schemes. For the chrominance component processing, we propose the gamut-adaptive clipping scheme to effectively solve the out-of-gamut problem. For the luminance component processing of a color image, we propose the gamut-adaptive scaling scheme to alleviate both the out-of-gamut and under-saturation problems. The proposed methods can be applied for image processing in any color space since the proposed correction is performed in the RGB color space. Experimental results show that the proposed methods can preserve the luminance and hue values and provide rich colors by adaptively controlling the saturation value according to the luminance component value.