A Direct Image Contrast Enhancement Algorithm in the Wavelet Domain for Screening Mammograms

In breast cancer diagnosis, the radiologists mainly use their eyes to discern cancer when they screen the mammograms. However, in many cases, cancer is not easily detected by the eyes because of the bad imaging conditions. In order to improve the correct diagnosis rate of cancer, image-enhancement technology is often used to enhance the image and aid the radiologists. In this paper, we develop a new image-enhancement technology in the wavelet domain for radiologists to screen mammograms. The new image-enhancement algorithm has several advantages. First, the proposed image-enhancement technology modifies a multiscale measure which matches the human vision system and thus the enhanced images have better visual quality; second, the image enhancement is accomplished in the wavelet domain and thus it can save time if the image is compressed by wavelet transform based methods; third, the end users can adjust the enhancement by manipulating a single parameter. Experiments were performed on mammograms and the results are progressive.